The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning), July 26, 2024.
Part 2: Rabash. Record 332. Concerning Equivalence of Form.
Reader: We are reading the article from Rabash, from Volume 3, 332, the article, “Concerning Equivalence Of Form.” You can also find it in the Arvut system, and in the study materials under Sviva Tova, and in the Rabash writings.
Reader: (00:32) Article 332 from Rabash, Concerning Equivalence of Form.
August 1979
Concerning equivalence of form, which is a correction to avoid the bread of shame, we can interpret in a literal manner, that since what is permitted about Him—the discernment of by-Your-actions-we-know-You—that He has contentment when He bestows upon the created beings, called “His desire to do good to His creations.” For this reason, the lower ones should also achieve this quality of having pleasure when they are bestowed upon. In the words of our sages, this is called “cleave unto His attributes, as He is merciful, so you are merciful.”
But since the creatures were born in the opposite state, since the upper desire, called “to do good to the created beings,” created in the created beings a desire to receive and not to bestow, and we desire to bestow only if we can thereby obtain a greater pleasure and we will receive some reward in return for our bestowal, but without pleasure, one cannot bestow anything, it follows that we are opposite in form from the Creator, and in spirituality, oppositeness of form is regarded as separation.
When one is separated from the Creator, how can he connect? Indeed, this is all the bad that there is in the creatures, which they must correct, and this is called “recognition of evil,” that one should come to recognize that nothing in the world hinders him from obtaining delight and pleasure, except for the will to receive. But our sages said, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice” (Kidushin 30b). This is thoroughly explained in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot.”
It therefore follows that when one engages in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments], the reason for his engagement should be to come to a state where the Creator gives him a reward for his work in Torah and Mitzvot, and his reward should be that he will be rid of the bad and achieve the good, meaning to be able to adhere to the Creator, who is called “Good.”
One should always have the reason before his eyes—that he wants to achieve the degree where he enjoys acts of bestowal, like the Creator, who enjoys being a Giver and does not need the creatures to give Him anything.
Likewise, man should ask the Creator to give him reward for his work, and the reward is that he will be able to work not in order to receive reward, that he will not need any reward for his work but will receive delight and pleasure during his acts of bestowal.
It follows that a person overcomes himself and performs acts of bestowal because he needs overcoming and coercion. It follows that on one hand, he has equivalence that he is not receiving but only bestows, yet he does not have delight and pleasure while bestowing without a reward. Thus, he has no equivalence of form with the Creator.
This means that one’s main work should be to enjoy while performing acts of bestowal. This is the meaning of what is written, “Serve the Lord with gladness” in order to have equivalence of form. Just as He enjoys when He bestows, as our sages said, “His desire to do good to His creations,” so man should achieve this degree.
This should be man’s entire reward, and this is called “bestowing in order to bestow” without any reward because he has no greater pleasure than this.
But once he is rewarded with this degree where all his pleasure is in bestowing upon the Creator, he sees and feels that he cannot give anything to the Creator that will please Him, other than to receive from Him the pleasures that He has prepared for His creations, which was the purpose of creation.
Hence, at that time, he is at a degree where he says to the Creator, “Give me greater pleasures because I want to give You contentment.” And since the Creator does not lack a thing, and the only discernment of a lack that we can speak of is for creation to achieve its goal, which is to delight His creations, it follows that not in order to receive reward means that a person has achieved a degree—which he was given as a gift from heaven—that his only pleasure is that he bestows upon the Creator. However, if he bestows and derives no pleasure, then he has no equivalence of form because he has no pleasure while bestowing and only yearns to be given something for his work in bestowal.
Conversely, when a person engages in matters of reception, he does not ask the Creator for anything in return or as a reward for his work in matters of reception. For this reason, the goal must always be in front of him, what he is asking in return for his work in Torah and Mitzvot, which is only that the Creator will grant him equivalence of form, which means that he will derive pleasure from engaging in bestowal.
M. Laitman: Questions? Good, it's a clear article.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (10:09) Rabash writes here, it turns out that a person overcomes himself and performs acts to bestow because he needs overcoming and coercion. Overcoming and coercion, is that work with the screen?
M. Laitman: Overcoming is already a screen.
Student: Where does raising MAN enter into this, before the overcoming?
M. Laitman: I didn't understand.
Student: The raising of MAN.
M. Laitman: Raising of MAN, what is raising of MAN?
Student: Prayer, request to the Creator.
M. Laitman: Request for what?
Student: To fill the deficiency, to fill the deficiency?
M. Laitman: Filling the deficiency, what deficiency?
Student: A deficiency that he reveals from the others.
M. Laitman: I didn't understand.
Student: Deficiency that he discovers from the others, he raises MAN.
M. Laitman: A deficiency he reveals from the others?
Student: From the friends.
M. Laitman: From the friends, yes?
Student: So he raises it, so the Creator will fill their deficiency?
M. Laitman: What deficiency?
Student: Adhesion?
M. Laitman: Adhesion, well okay, so?
Student: So, how does the person know that he received an answer from the raising of the MAN, by what?
M. Laitman: By lowering MAD from above, when the Creator gives him the strength to perform the action.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:12) What is to get to know the evil inclination? He says that we have to come to the recognition of the evil inclination. What is to reach recognition of the evil inclination, what do I need to get to know in it?
M. Laitman: What he wants.
Student: What do I need to get to know in the evil inclination?
M. Laitman: What does he want?
Student: What it wants, the evil inclination?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: It only wants everything for myself. It doesn't want anything, he doesn't want connection, he doesn't want love. He wants everything for me to suckle just into myself.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: So I'm asking, after all we learn that every single day, and also to continue the previous article, that we are a generation that did not know Joseph, and yet, there are laws in the Torah, and we have to accept these laws, the Torah as a spice. I ask myself every day anew, how do we accept these rules, these laws upon ourselves so that we will reach this recognition first and then us to come to a correction in our days, and come to equivalence of form with the upper? How do we get to this each day anew?
M. Laitman: Each day, you ask the Creator to give you the possibility to receive in order to bestow and you try to do it, and each time with a new desire.
Student: He gave us the desire to receive, which is completely opposite Him.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: I need to come to the goal, which is that I will enjoy from bestowing, which is not in my nature.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How do we get, just like the friend asked earlier, I am reading here every day the articles, I just understand it with my intellect. How to come to a feeling that we will enjoy it? That it will really, so that a friend will come to the lesson, will come to the gathering of friends with the Ten? For him to come to every meeting with the friends and really out of pleasure, that he is giving up everything around out of pleasure, out of love? How do we come to such a state?
M. Laitman: Exercises.
Student: What does that mean, exercises? You come to the lesson and you muster your intentions, your desires, that you want to achieve connection with the friends. Of course it's against your natural desire, but you constantly ask the Creator to give you the strength for it.
Student: Even if I don't have desire I have to ask Him to give me a desire for it?
M. Laitman: Even if you don't have a desire for it, even though, but the Creator can change the desires, so let Him give you a new desire.
Student: Can I ask another question? He says on one hand, he has no pleasure or delight when he bestows without receiving a reward. It turns out that he doesn't have equivalence with the Creator. What is this reward that he's talking about, what reward do I need to come for every day here and ask?
M. Laitman: What you intended before you came to the intention to bestow, that you want to perform an act in order to bestow. What do you want in return for it?
Student: But if eventually I check myself each time deeper and deeper, and I say wait a minute, what do I want? It's still my desire for myself, right?
M. Laitman: Of course it's your desire, what else can you do?
Student: So that's what I’m asking. Where is here? When you say I want to bestow, and I want to give pleasure to the Creator without pleasure for myself?
M. Laitman: That too, you do with your desire, you can't get out of the desire.
Student: What can I leave, go out of? What does the Creator give me permission to go out from? Where's my first, my new exit every day? I feel like every day we're exiting some additional stage and we come to a higher state.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: I’m asking myself whether this process is endless, meaning each time you feel more and more that your dependency is on the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: I’m asking where here is your self-desire here, because eventually you have to constantly just raise a prayer to the Creator, you understand that your force is from the Creator.
M. Laitman: You ask the Creator to give you the desire to bestow.
Student: That's it in simplicity?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And if the Torah as a spice that he's talking about, is that from the exercises that you said to me earlier, that I need to ask Him?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Every day feel more and more?
M. Laitman: I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:48) To continue earlier, he writes here, but once he reached that degree, where all the pleasure is by bestowing to the Creator, he sees and feels that he cannot give anything to the Creator that will bring Him contentment besides being able to receive the pleasures that He prepared for his creations, which is the purpose of creation. I want to continue as the questions of the friends, I’ll continue this question. After all, we perform the actions in the Ten. Let's say now there's a meal, there was a meal, we feel a strong connection, a very strong connection, and we say that all our work in the Ten, in the group is all a means to reach the Creator. Is that pleasant feeling that is created, do we need to remain with it? If so then, well, and if not, what do we have to do with it to move to the next stage, because you said that it's a means to reach the Creator?
M. Laitman: It is all a means to bestow upon the Creator, I don't know what it means to reach the Creator, it's to bestow upon the Creator. So we want through all our various actions that the Creator will direct them too for us, we want to reach Him.
Student: So, do I need to do an additional active action after we’re in a connection? That good pleasant feeling, I don't know how to describe it, it's simply like a feeling like there's nothing missing.
M. Laitman: With who?
Student: Is that enough?
M. Laitman: With who?
Student: With the Ten, that’s what I'm saying. Is that pleasant feeling enough, or do I have to do another action to connect it to the Creator?
M. Laitman: It's probably not enough.
Student: It's not enough, so what else do we need to do to connect it?
M. Laitman: What is the purpose of creation?
Student: To do good to His creations.
M. Laitman: To do good to His creations. In other words I need to perform an act that will be some benefit for the created beings.
Student: Yes, for it to be good for me.
M. Laitman: Not that it will be good for me, good for them. How are you translating it? To do good to His creations means that I have to do good to His creations, right?
Student: Yes.
M. Laitman: Right, so by this I will be similar to the Creator.
Student: Yes.
M. Laitman: Then, according to the law of equivalence of form, I will receive from Him the same pleasure that He feels.
Student: Okay, so if I understand you correctly, you're saying the fact that we perform actions, let's say, in the society, but first in order to feel, let's say, we said meal, you want to feel the connection. You have to do work here, you won't just come and sit down in a meal, otherwise, you'll feel like it's a restaurant on the outside.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So I do need to do an action? I'm asking again, you came to that point where you felt connection, you felt good, you’re saying that it's not enough because.…
M. Laitman: It's not enough.
Student: Because you say that you have to bestow upon His creations, that’s His goal?
M. Laitman: Yes, return, oh children of Israel, unto the Lord your God, that's what it's called.
Student: So we can't reach the meal? I'm just giving the example of a meal, you can't come to the meal and feel the connection and all that unless you did work before that, you won't experience it. If you didn't act within the Ten, if you didn't bestow, you won't be able to reap the reward here. So I'm asking, the same feeling in the Ten, I'm sorry, in the meal, is that enough or do we have to do other actions after that?
M. Laitman: You will see a result, and then you'll say.
Student: A result is something I see only in my feeling, not the…
M. Laitman: In the feeling, of course.
Student: So what I felt, that feeling of connection actually is the sign that I operated, that I bestowed to the Creator, that I seemingly.…
M. Laitman: The fact that you connected with the friends…
Student: Yes, I connected with the friends.
M. Laitman: What happens next?
Student: That's it, I don't know what happens next, that’s what I'm asking.
M. Laitman: You together, you need to turn to the Creator together, to pray to Him, that you want to reach Him. Reaching Him means being in equivalence of form with Him.
Student: So we did a meal, we were during this meeting, we were in a process of connecting and turning to Him, and then we had this feeling of connection. From here, from this strong feeling that we came out with do we have to do another action, or is that it? We reached already….
M. Laitman: I don't know what you felt as a result of the connection, tell me.
Student: There was a feeling of connection, I don't have a way to describe a feeling. A feeling of wholeness like nothing was missing, that's the feeling. At that moment, you're in this feeling that you lack nothing, wholeness. Is that the end of the process that we did together, because we prepared ourselves for this, and we're ready for this. Throughout the day, we're working on this, and at some point you reach some peak, some apex. Then all that remains, I think is to thank the Creator. I don't know if there's something else to do.
M. Laitman: That you all reached connection.
Student: Yes, we reached a connection, at the end of the Ten, we felt connection.
M. Laitman: You don't feel that there's anything more to add to it?
Student: At least I didn't feel anything, and when I spoke to the friends, there was also this strong feeling.
M. Laitman: So, you need only to thank, to give thanks.
Student: It seems like that, that's what I'm asking, I think so.
M. Laitman: Do it.
Student: Thank, to give thanks?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:14) I want to add to the scrutiny, because it's really something that is not so clear, the purpose of creation, to do good to His created beings, so it's a question, but it's also a statement. In my perception of reality, how the Creator wants to give us abundance of pleasure, and if we receive this pleasure, then first of all it's good for us, because we feel the pleasure, but we cannot receive that pleasure in order to receive it, it's only in order to bestow. Otherwise, we won't receive it.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So if we did a certain connection, and I reflected upon TES, not that I understand much, but if we performed a connection called the first Kli, called the Kli of Keter, where the light of Nefesh is filled in it…
M. Laitman: So?
Student: So we received pleasure on the level of the light of Nefesh, which is a small light relatively, but it's relatively a very big pleasure. We did a connection again, we came to a new Kli called the Kli of Hochma, and in it we received the light of Nefesh and the Kli of Keter received the light of Ruach. And like this we build within us, through the connection with the friends. I'm still just depicting this to myself that it's like this, the whole NRNHY. It’s a very, very big pleasure, but it can only be done in order to bestow, and it's to do good to His creations. I feel good, the Creator feels good, everyone feels good. Is it so?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:02) This is also to continue our great friend. There are moments in the work, where the lack of the friend becomes a reward for the Ten, as far as the individual and the general being equal, and even a sweetness feeling in the Ten. And with it, we can seemingly coerce the Creator in the manner of, if you don't help, how will we come to equivalence of form with you in order to do good to all that you've chosen to create.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:49) To continue the friend, when we perform an act of connection, so from it we feel pleasure. How do we, how can we be assured that it's not in order to receive?
M. Laitman: Because you're doing it together with the intention to do it in order to bestow upon each other within the Ten, and then from within the Ten, with the common effort, you direct it to the Creator.
Student: Also when we aim everything to the Creator and unite it all with Him?
M. Laitman: No, not each one, but all of us together.
Student: Meaning?
M. Laitman: The whole Ten connects between each other, and in this way all of us together direct ourselves to bestow upon the Creator.
Student: Meaning there needs to be a thought, besides us connecting ourselves to the Creator, there needs to be a thought that's related to the perception of reality?
M. Laitman: You can't connect to the Creator unless each of you annuls himself before the friends.
Student: Yes, but I nullified myself, and I don't yet have a general perception of reality, I canceled myself.
M. Laitman: Why don't you have it?
Student: That's the question, if we have to use our thoughts about the perception of reality, that I'm included, integrated with the Ten, or maybe of the whole world, there has to be an additional thought here. Because it's kind of like me and the Creator here. It’s a danger that it'll again become in order to receive, so we need here the thought about how to arrange the perception of reality, so that each is included from the Ten.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, I'm asking to complete the question, otherwise do we need additional thought about me in the collective? Who am I towards the collective, what's the collective towards me?
M. Laitman: Yes. Okay, so you annul before the Ten, and the Ten seemingly swallows you, absorbs you.
Student: Yes, so the thought needs to go in two arrows. One, we're aimed towards the Creator, and the other, the thought to constantly arrange the correct perception of reality?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: So I will again be in order to receive, me and the Creator. When a person feels a strong pleasure in connection, he has to care of it, so it won't be in order to receive. He has to operate certain thoughts here.
M. Laitman: Yes, so he makes a restriction.
Student: What is it to act in that way?
M. Laitman: That he doesn't want to receive that pleasure for himself.
Student: Then what does he do with all that, who does he give it to?
M. Laitman: The society, and with the whole of society to the Creator.
Student: So he has to turn it from the society to the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:02) You just said that the whole Ten connects between one and his friend. Meaning I sit with my Ten and I try to connect as much as possible with all of them, and I don't need to connect with everyone. Whoever I connect with, I connect with him, and he connects with the rest?
M. Laitman: No. No, within the ten you have to connect with everyone.
Student: I understand.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:35) I have a question. They say that the Creator resurrects the dead. If a Ten comes to equivalence of form with the Creator, can it revive the dead?
M. Laitman: No. A Ten is a Ten, it's the vessel that the Creator nurtures, tends to and elevates.
Student: What is the meaning of to revive the dead?
M. Laitman: It's that if you have a friend who previously was in order to receive, which is called dead, now he receives strength from the Creator to, in some way to be in order to bestow, to kind of come to, to wake up, and in this way he awakens toward the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:45) He says here that we need to come to a state in which we turn to the Creator to give you pleasure when you engage in bestowal, and he also says in another place, give me great pleasures because I want to bring You contentment.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Meaning the first half of the request is give me great pleasures, we're all excelling in that. The reason that I don't want it for myself, but I want to bring You contentment is the difficulty that a person cannot take out of himself alone in such a request.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Now in order for a change to take place in me, there are kind of like two workplaces. One, it's the speech of a person to the Creator, that asks him to overcome his nature, and the second time it's his work with the friends to give him an example, to give him an environment so he'll be able to bestow from them and learn from them.
M. Laitman: Well, so?
Student: How is it that a person works in two different workplaces? What are the priorities, where to go work first, what's the importance of each?
M. Laitman: First, with the friends.
Student: A person has to come to such a connection with the friends that he can ask them to give him forces to enjoy from performing an act of bestowal towards them?
M. Laitman: Not necessarily.
Student: Because it needs to be something above nature.
M. Laitman: No. To be given pleasure that he's working with the friends?
Student: From bestowing to them. I don't know, let's say we perform certain actions between one another to the Ten. Sometimes someone brings a bottle, sometimes someone arranges a meal, and then he has certain calculations with himself, the person. Why did I do, is it for myself, for them? There are many such calculations from such an act. And the question is how to extend it to a state where you ask the friends to be for me, let's say, like the source of the abundance. A person can imagine that the Creator is giving him everything and everything is given to him from the Creator, but with the friends, it doesn't seem like the abundance comes from them. I mean it seems like they're like him, so how do they put the friends above their head and start looking at them like the Creator, as the place for work, the place of the abundance, a place to bestow towards Him?
M. Laitman: When he comes closer to the Creator, he'll discover it.
Student: So again, is it first the friends or first the Creator?
M. Laitman: Without the friends, he can't get closer to the Creator, without the Creator, he will not feel that he is in the right connection with the friends and receives through them.
Student: What's first?
M. Laitman: First, the friends.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:17) The combination of joy and bestowal, he says that they have to be together. It feels like there's a... it's confusing. The joy should be as a result of bestowal, not as a reason for bestowal, right?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So how to ask for joy and bestowal without it being dipped in the ego, how to organize the request? He says you have to ask to do only for the Creator to give him equivalence of form, meaning he'll have pleasure in engaging in bestowal. So how can we ask for such a thing so it doesn't come from within the will to receive?
M. Laitman: Ask.
Student: Why does he use the word pleasure, the pleasure in bestowal? What is the pleasure, it's because of the greatness of the Creator? This is what fills a person when he bestows?
M. Laitman: Pleasure from you bestowing, from being similar to the Creator. Then from your identification with the Creator comes to you a special light.
Student: Wouldn't it be cleaner to ask help me bestow, even if I don't feel pleasure in it?
M. Laitman: Yes, of course, because you want to be similar to the Creator.
Student: Because he says, if there's no pleasure in bestowal, it's not bestowal.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:09) I often hear from Rav that you have to connect in the Ten and then turn to the Creator. Because if I work in the Ten on connection, I feel I can only come to despair with my own strength.
M. Laitman: Why?
Student: How can the will to receive connect at all?
M. Laitman: It's no longer the will to receive in order to receive, you want to become similar to the Creator by not receiving.
Student: I hear Rav saying you have to connect and then turn to the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What does it mean to connect? Everyone begins to work inside the will to receive in order to receive, right? Without the Creator's help I can't do anything, not the restriction, not build the screen, and certainly not the intention to bestow.
M. Laitman: Turn to the Creator to give you the desire to bestow by which you will be able to connect.
Student: So the first part is you have to connect. What does it mean we have to connect?
M. Laitman: To bestow upon each other.
Student: The way I understand it, in my egoistic desire?
M. Laitman: Bestow upon each other and also receive from one another as long as we're all connected.
Student: It's a corporeal connection, not a spiritual one.
M. Laitman: I don't know what you're depicting to yourself, but the spiritual connection is also like that.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:06) The main work of a person here is a request from the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: It says the goal always has to be before his eyes when he asks for is work in Torah and Mitzvot, commandments. It is only that the Creator will give him, as a gift, equivalence of form. Why does he call it a gift? We're dealing with the work of prayer, labor to receive it, work to keep the goal, which is not simple, we have to keep it all the time, and then he calls it a gift?
M. Laitman: When you receive from them what you don't have and you need it, that's called a gift.
Student: It comes opposite a big labor.
M. Laitman: That's your business, but towards the Creator, that's how it is.
Student: Okay, so how do we keep that goal all the time, to ask for equivalence of form correctly? This is the main request we have to ask between us, so it should be constantly before our eyes. How do we constantly keep it before our eyes?
M. Laitman: Through connection with the friends.
Student: Like you said before, that the work is through the friends.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And to be incorporated in their desire.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:50) Rabash writes, it turns out that when a person engages in Torah and Mitzvot, the reason for his engagement has to be that he, in return for his work in Torah and commandments, He will give him a reward. And his reward should be to get rid of the bad and come to the good, meaning that he can adhere to the Creator called good, and the reason must always be before his eyes, that he wants to reach to a degree where he enjoys acts of bestowal. And the example is the Creator, that He enjoys bestowing, and He doesn't need anything for the created beings to give Him. So likewise, a person has to ask the Creator to give him a reward for his work, and the reward is that he can work, not in order to receive rewards, that he doesn't need any reward for his work, but in the act that he has delight and pleasure during his bestowal. It turns out that a person overcomes a desire and works in order to bestow, and he needs to overcome coercion. On the one hand, he has equivalence of form, equivalence that he's not receiving but only bestowing, but he doesn't have delight and pleasure when he bestows without a reward. It turns out that he doesn't have equivalence with the Creator. It turns out that a person's main work has to be that he gets pleasure while performing acts of bestowal. As it is written, serve the Lord with gladness, meaning in order to have equivalence of form. As He enjoys when He bestows, as our sages said, His desire to do good to His creations, so man should achieve this degree. This should be man's entire reward, and this is called bestowing in order to bestow without any reward because there's no greater pleasure than this. So that's phase one, after that he talks about receiving in order to bestow already through the friends and the Creator, because he doesn't have a vessel of reception in a person, his vessel of reception is outside of him.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: He can only receive the strength to receive in corporeality, so he has the strength to work in order to bestow.
M. Laitman: Correct.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:22) We said that the Creator wants to do good to his creations and I need to want to do good to the creations too. So I have a desire, I want to do good to the creations, I pray for it.
M. Laitman: You have a desire to do good to His created beings?
Student: Yes, so why are there still created beings that are suffering?
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: So what am I not doing enough? I want them to be happy, but there are created beings who are not happy.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: So what am I not doing now, enough?
M. Laitman: You're doing everything. You…
Student: I want the created beings to be happy, and there are created beings, I look at them, and they're suffering, they're unhappy.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So I missed out somewhat.
M. Laitman: So what are you missing for it to be good for them?
Student: That's my goal, that's what I need to do, that's my goal, that's my life, that's what I pray for, that's why I'm here every morning. I think about it, I pray for it every morning, all day. There are created beings are still suffering, they're unhappy.
M. Laitman: Yes, it's a sign that you're not trying hard enough.
Student: So what's missing?
M. Laitman: What is needed? To pray to the Creator.
Student: I pray to the Creator every morning that the created beings will be happy. I think about them, I send quotes, I cut off excerpts from the lesson, I think about it, I pray for a new lesson all the time. They're still created beings who are unhappy.
M. Laitman: Maybe it's just you who sees it that way.
Student: Do you see that everyone's happy?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How can I see this?
M. Laitman: Ask the Creator to give you to see them in the correct way.
Student: Wars, troubles, casualties, wounded, conflicts. It's all in my imagination, it doesn't exist, it's all a lie?
M. Laitman: No, you're right, you're right. Well, so what comes out from you praying?
Student: I'm missing something. It's not good. I don't know.
M. Laitman: So what are you asking?
Student: What to do so that the created beings will be happy?
M. Laitman: Only ask.
Student: Doesn't he want me to...
M. Laitman: He probably doesn't want it from you.
Student: But I think everyone here is asking for it, they want it.
M. Laitman: You need to make this summation with the friends, that you will all together raise this prayer, and then you will see if the Creator refuses or doesn't.
Student: I think they're doing it, there's no one here who doesn't want it.
M. Laitman: If you think that you guys are doing everything correctly, and all of us together, and you're turning to the Creator, then probably the Creator is not okay, that’s it. Now, according to your smile, I can see that...
Student: I agree with you, so what do we do now?
M. Laitman: I don't know, but I’m optimistic.
Student: The Creator really is.
M. Laitman: What do we do? We do calculations, we recalculate where we're mistaken in and why the Creator doesn't hear us. It's a necessary matter to study it and have Him answer us. And to ourselves, and to change the prayer to the Creator. Well, that's it. Okay, so you'll change probably.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:24) It says here at the end of the article, therefore, the goal must always be before his eyes. What he asks for his work in Torah and commandments, which is only for the Creator to give him as a gift, equivalence of form, which means that he will derive pleasure from engaging in bestowal. That request from the Creator to give him a gift in return for his labor to have a reward, how does the Creator view this request, does it sound egoistic?
M. Laitman: What egoistic, what exactly do you want? You want the whole world to hear what the true purpose of creation is and how to reach it, how to implement it, and that's what you're praying for.
Student: So we should simply build correctly?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:44) I want to ask about the meal that my friend talked about. If I had to tell someone your goal in this world is to come to a meal to the highest level in this world, I'd tell them you have to come to that street to that building, take a table, put a tablecloth on it, put the food in the vessels. There are silver vessels there. He and his wife were cooking this food all day for the friends, amazing delicacies, and then the friends get confidence, which is a clothing for the light called life. My question is, Rabash said that a disciple that is in exile, his teacher is exiled with him. And if they brought the righteous back to the degree of the redeemer, at that moment the meal would not be in Egypt, it would be in the King's Hall in the land of Israel. How does the Ten at that moment, raise the righteous back to the degree of the righteous from the place to which they brought him down?
M. Laitman: I don't know, it's hard for me to understand altogether what you're saying because you always say it… you spin it in such ways with such examples that I don't have. I don't have them, and I'm sorry.
Student: In the meal, the meal was according to what each one assumes in his heart. What is pleasure, what is light, what is Moses, and what is together? There's no rising from here, it’s the top. Now my question is, how from this level does the Ten advance to a place where they cannot imagine? It's above reason and the feelings because they are already at the highest level they can imagine in this world, in connection between the friends and pleasures. How from there do they take Baal HaSulam…
M. Laitman: I don't know, I'm not in those degrees. Do you understand that? I don't want to imagine to myself what you're putting into my head. Talk about what we're talking about, and where we are, and how we are there, and not these imaginations. I'm sorry.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:30) So I heard many things, many things I didn't understand, some I did, joy, no joy, gratitude, and then equivalence of form. I want to ask you straight up, what are the points, the most important points to come to equivalence of form? That's what I want to know. They drove me nuts. He wants his gratitude, equivalence of form, now he confused you, I didn't understand anything. How do we come to equivalence of form?
M. Laitman: To equivalence of form.
Student: Equivalence of form with the Creator. What is the most important point so I can take something from here, so I don't come out of here confused.
M. Laitman: That needs to be in equivalence of form with the Creator.
Student: Okay, I'm asking, what are the points to get there? Because you once told us…. Our friend talked about gratitude, he says…
M. Laitman: Well, let go, let go, let go. You want to confuse us with all those things?
Student: Okay, so in order not to be confused, what are the most important points so I can come to equivalence of form, so I come out of here with something in my hand?
M. Laitman: In order to reach the purpose of creation, you need to simply know how to nullify yourself correctly before the friends and together with them, reach equivalence of form with the Creator, that's it.
Student: That's it?
M. Laitman: That's it.
Student: Because you often told us to come to equivalence of form, come to the greatness of the Creator. You said, first be in the darkness, and then you'll learn how to…
M. Laitman: I never told you darkness.
Student:. You said the light comes out of the darkness.
M. Laitman: I don't know, according to your logic maybe it can be that way.
Student: How can you discover the light if there's no darkness?
M. Laitman: I don't know.
Student: But you talked about it many times. Do I have to come to the darkness in the group in order to come to the light?
M. Laitman: That's the question. Now you're asking?
Student: Yes, I'm asking a result of that.
M. Laitman: Without any introduction to that. So I'm telling you, we're not in the darkness.
Student: Shouldn't we get there in order to go out to the light?
M. Laitman: You need to constantly yearn for the light.
Student: Okay.
M. Laitman: But on the way to it, you'll discover the darkness, the true state that you're in, which is an attainment already, and in opposite manner of the truth. Advance more and you'll discover in place of the darkness, the light.
Student: So it's a natural process that should happen? The darkness, these states, is it natural? Something that the Creator lets you feel along the way, so that you go out to the light?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes.
Student: How do I come to this? How do I shorten time to be in it, to come out of the darkness to enter the light?
M. Laitman: When you yearn to the Creator constantly, and you yearn to discover the vessels with which you can come closer to Him, then you discover, you think that it's light. What you'll discover is darkness, more and more, and you receive it and agree because you have no choice. That on the way to the Creator, you need to discover the darkness, and then you continue onwards, and through the darkness you discover the light.
M. Laitman: Write it down for yourself.
Student: It talks about joy, it says the work has to be in joy.
M. Laitman: The fact that you're eventually going towards the Creator, then you go through the darkness to the light and to the Creator, and that brings you joy.
Student: So in short, the question is, in the darkness, I have to be in joy also?
M. Laitman: All the time.
Student: Even when I'm in the darkness?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:03) What you just said to the friend, is it the recognition of evil, is the darkness recognition of evil, recognition of the will to receive?
M. Laitman: That's already more than the discovery of the darkness. When you reveal in the darkness a stage of advancement towards the revelation of the Creator, and in it, why do you reveal the darkness? Because you're discovering the evil, the opposite quality from the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:47) After the Ten reaches pleasure, does it feel that same point you said before? You have to thank the Creator, how do we thank the Creator?
M. Laitman: Later we'll talk about that. First we'll get there and then we'll talk about it, it's still early.
Student: Is it too early to thank?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: If a person receives pleasure now, he feels, sometimes we have this feeling where a situation is created, both for individual people, or in the Ten, that something happened and he wants to kind of pay back, to give back, he wants to pay for it. So you're saying it's too early to pay, we have nothing to pay with?
M. Laitman: If you feel the darkness, then you have nothing to pay for.
Student: No, but you feel the light.
M. Laitman: Already the light?
Student: I don't want to use these words, but I feel that a situation is created that is good, a good situation is created that I don't deserve, that's the feeling. So I want to be, I want to give thanks for it. So a person feels that he wants to pay back for something good that happened to him, so how does he pay back, with what does he have to give back?
M. Laitman: In gratitude.
Student: But you just said gratitude is too good, too early.
M. Laitman: No, towards what? If he feels so good that the Creator did for him, then he can do a feast of gratitude, of thanksgiving.
Student: So you're saying a meal is a way of giving thanks?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So a Ten who feels gratitude should have a meal?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:13) I wanted to ask about a friend saying that his prayers are not answered. We say that we should attach the prayer to the redemption. The problem is that if we don't have troubles, we won't need the Creator, so He wants us to keep needing Him but if we could know how to attribute everything to Him in wholeness, then things could change. Is there something to it, Rav?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:03) I heard Rav say that we have to come to connection between us in the Ten, and from the connection to turn to the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student:. Yesterday in our Ten, we had a scrutiny. How can we strengthen each friend's commitment in the Ten toward the path, toward the study in order to rise? My question is, how does a Ten know that it reached such a connection from which it is possible to turn to the Creator?
M. Laitman: You can turn to the Creator from every state.
Student: But should we feel the connection first, or...
M. Laitman: Ask. From every state, we can turn to the Creator and ask for connection, ask for ascent, and from the connection between us to ask for a connection with the Creator.
Student: When a Ten makes such a scrutiny within itself…
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Do we have to connect, do we have to bring the Creator into the Ten? Does it have to happen in the scrutiny itself?
M. Laitman: Yes and no, however we can, but trying in this is good.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:26) It says that the work itself is a reward. We have to remember this, but the will to receive doesn't want to hear it, so how do we come to equivalence with Him? He wrote three words for us, love your friend as yourself.
M. Laitman: Well?
Student: The one who taught me how to do it is Rabash. He told me, you have to love the friends and not they to love you. That's it, I wanted to share it with you.
M. Laitman: Wonderful, thank you.
Student: (01:02:04) To our great and brave friend in the name of the Ten. When the wicked are revealed in the work, when he cannot see providence and guidance as good and doing good and he decides and determines that he is happy that he can make this discernment, it is said, that during the ascent it’s good to scrutinize the words of the Torah and even the secrets of the Torah. Even if it's a little bit like going into a perfume store, and you just take a little bit of reflected light from it. So if you use this, and if there's any benefit in that, please tell us.
M. Laitman: All right.
Student: (01:03:15) Rabash says, everything is in the hands of the Creator besides fear of heaven, because fear of heaven should be an awakening from below. How does it make sense that fear of heaven is not in the hands of the Creator, and what exactly does he mean when he talks about fear of heaven?
M. Laitman: The fear of heaven is the fear of heaven. It's fear towards the Creator, and we need to attain it in order to correctly know how to turn to Him.
Student: It's not in His hands?
M. Laitman: Well, it depends.
Student: But he says everything is in the hands of the Creator except for this?
M. Laitman: Well, this specifically is what depends on a person. Everything but that, now.
Student: He continues and says, so when a person prays, it's already considered an awakening from below, so his impression is already called work, so work is only what is in the hands of man and not in the hands of the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:29) We said before that overcoming is already a screen. Now if a person receives the strength to overcome, so he already has a screen?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Can we say that we all have a screen, we simply have to learn to work with it correctly?
M. Laitman: No, whoever receives, receives, whoever doesn't, doesn't.
Student: Is there a situation where a restriction and a screen happen in a person without his awareness, can this happen?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: So it has to be conscious, he has to feel this process?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:23) Is there a difference between faith and the desire to bestow or are they the same?
M. Laitman: The desire to bestow comes from the created being, and faith comes from the Creator. But the desire to bestow is as MAN and from the side of the created being, and when the Creator gives the answer, it's called MAD, and then a person can clothe himself with it and pray and ask, demand. Okay?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:30) The end of the act is in the preliminary thought. The friends are asking, so it popped into my mind. Connecting in order to turn to him, so there's a loop here. So the question is, do we connect as a way to turn to the Creator, and that's why we connect, although we're not connected yet?
M. Laitman: It's worthwhile to try or even imagine to yourselves that you're in connection in order to ask the Creator for that also in action and in operation, in an act. That's a great thing. That's it?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:30) I wanted to ask a more general question toward the end of the lesson. There are friends who ask questions during the lesson, there are friends who provide answers, there are those who make speeches, very long ones, some bring excerpts and quotes, some answer briefly. To some of the friends, it bothers them, some friends like it. How do we relate correctly to the friends in the lesson in all the forms that are revealed?
M. Laitman: We need to relate to them all nicely. A person has a question as serious or not that it appears to you, we need to listen and try to answer. That's it. I'm patient, do you think, yes or no?
Student: We feel that you are patient.
M. Laitman: So there, so how else can you do this? There's no other way to do this. It's, that’s the sorrow of raising sons.
Student: I understand, if it's a question, you know it takes a while for a person to find his words, to phrase a question. You hear the questions come in between the words, but if it's not a question, a person wants to…
M. Laitman: Yes, then also he has some kind of inner pressure. He doesn't know how to ask until you open.
Student: How should we relate to this inner pressure, is there room for it?
M. Laitman: There is room for it, you see? Now?
Student: It's just that we see different approaches from you, so we're trying to learn your approach. Sometimes you cut the question, no philosophy, just ask a question, and now you're more, let's say, softer, patient. You let every friend come and make sermons before everyone. So which…
M. Laitman: There are several reasons for this. It could be that it's our general state. I don't think that it's my individual state to such an extent, no. But there's this way and that way, and I think that usually, would the students come out of lesson with, and accordingly, I relate to it.
Student: So what has changed in us?
M. Laitman: Well, you are gradually learning more how to ask. What’s the matter of a question and connection? There are many things that connect during the question but questions and answers, it's everything. Like Rabash writes as well, everything is built on the questions and answers.
Student: The nature of the lesson is a reflection of our relationships now?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Has anything changed in this period? Are we more…
M. Laitman: You're beginning to become closer to one another, more connected, and it's lately felt greatly, so let's hope that we are in the right direction, and can increase the speed of our development.
Student: A question. How can we be patient toward a friend who asks, speaks, says…. I don't know, and my ears just can't hear him?
M. Laitman: And I, what?
Student: How do you do it?
M. Laitman: Can you feel that I'm overcoming it?
Student: Sometimes. Sometimes yes, sometimes, we don't feel.
M. Laitman: What can you do? We must like that. I'm not saying that I'm really an example for everyone, but I try. It's a must. Okay, what does the day tell us?
Reader: (01:12:52) Announcements.