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

Daily Lesson (Morning) December 22, 2024.

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. The Love of God and the Love of Man

Reader: Hello, we're reading from the writings of Baal HaSulam, the article “The Love of God and the Love of Man”. You can find the article and our study materials in Sviva Tova and our Arvut system, and you can also send live questions through our systems. Again, the writings of Baal HaSulam, the article “The Love of God and the Love of Man”.

Reading: (00:38) “‘Love your friend as yourself,’ Rabbi Akiva says this is a great rule in the Torah” (Beresheet Rabbah 24).

Heading, Collective and Individual

The above statement—although it is one of the most famous and cited sayings—is still unexplained to everyone with all its vastness. This is because the word Klal [rule/or collective] indicates a sum of details that relates to the above collective, where each and every detail carries a part within it in a way that the gathering of all the details together creates that collective.

If we say “a great Klal in the Torah,” it means that all the texts and the 612 Mitzvot [commandments] are the sum total of the details that relate to the verse, “Love your friend as yourself.” It is difficult to understand how such a statement can contain the sum-total of all the Mitzvot in the Torah. At most, it can be a Klal for the part of the Torah and sentences that relate to the Mitzvot between man and man. But how can you include the greater part of the Torah, which concerns work between man and the Creator in the verse, “Love your friend as yourself”?

M. Laitman: Any questions? No questions. Let's continue.

That Which You Hate, Do Not Do to Your Friend

Reading: (03:34) If we can somehow reconcile the above words, there come the words of Old Hillel to that foreigner who came to him and asked him to convert him, as it says in the Gemara, “Convert me so that you will teach me the whole Torah while I am standing on one leg.” He told him, “That which you hate, do not do to your friend. This is the whole Torah, and the rest is its commentary, go study.” We see that he told him that the whole Torah is the interpretation of the verse, “Love your friend as yourself.”

Now, according to the words of Hillel—the teacher of all the Tannaim [sages during the early CE centuries], and by whom laws are interpreted—it is perfectly clear to us that the primary purpose of our holy Torah is to bring us to that sublime degree where we can observe this verse, “Love your friend as yourself,” for he says explicitly, “The rest is its commentary, go study.” That is, they interpret for us how to come to that rule.

It is surprising that such a statement can be correct in most issues of the Torah, which concern sentences between man and the Creator, when every beginner evidently knows that this is the heart of the Torah and not the interpretation explaining the verse, “Love your friend as yourself.”

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:44): Why not love your God, Lord your God is the great rule in the Torah? Why not that? 

M. Laitman: It's about a person, simple, who wants to achieve correction that is kept for him. And then this is what he is told, that if he has this approach to the friends, relation to the friends, by this he attains the correction of creation. 

Student: What assures a person that he will move from love your friend as yourself to love your God?

M. Laitman: What guarantees is help from above.

Student: Is it a condition, if I work in love your friend as yourself that I will definitely reach “love your God”? 

M. Laitman: If I want to attain love the Lord your God, then for me what is necessary and required is love your friend as yourself.

Student: And what is that rule: love your friend as yourself? 

M. Laitman: It's the first stage in acquiring the quality of love, the connection.

Student: What's the simple meaning of love your friend as yourself? 

M. Laitman: That you love the other no less than you love yourself.

Student: How can I know that I'm operating correctly in love your friend as yourself?

M. Laitman: We have to think, delve into it, until, he writes there that no less than you love yourself. So when you love everyone like that, and you don't have anything, that you don't relate to it this way,

Student: In order to love the friend, I need to feel that he's mine, or that he's something outside of me? 

M. Laitman: The friend is external, outside, of course, but you love him like you love yourself.

Student: And he reaches a state where it's kind of like part of me, the friend, meaning he moves from being external to internal?

M. Laitman:  Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (10:41) Is there anything else that's written about that it's the great rule in the Torah, or only this?

M. Laitman: Well, that's the known one.

Student: The connection that he makes between what the old Hillel says to this foreigner: don't do to others that which you hate, and love your friend as yourself, where does this connection come from?

M. Laitman: This is what the sages say.

Student: Love your friend as yourself, is it interpretation, actually? Because Hillel doesn't say, love your friend as yourself, he says, don't do to your friend what's hated upon you, kind of like less.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, where does this jump come from? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, this is what's written. 

Student: There aren't some, I don't know, some, as far as knowledge or learning from this, is there somewhere to qualify this? 

M. Laitman: No. It's enough in order to accept it as a goal.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:15) He writes that the main desire of the Holy Torah is to bring us to the sublime degree where we will be able to observe this writing, love thy friend as yourself. Now, this rule is central, it's inclusive. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: On our path, there is an action that is central, and that's the morning lesson, but how does this action of the morning lesson bring us closer to this rule? What is there in it that… 

M. Laitman: The one doesn't relate to the other if you can put it this way. Of course, there is a connection, but it's not from the act itself. We need to see that all of our meetings, lessons, our gatherings are only in order to unite more and more, and more and more in order to reveal the Creator and the connection between us.

Student: You said earlier that this rule relates to the relation between friends that leads to the relation towards the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Can't you enter into this action of the morning lesson? I come to the morning lesson, isn't there something that projects, and intensifies, and strengthens the relations between the friends and from there to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes, to some extent, of course.

Student: So, by me coming here, what is the thought, what is the direction that I should have so it will strengthen the connection between me and the friends?

M. Laitman: When you will come to connection where you feel yourselves, all of you, like one.

Student: Can we say that this action, which is so important when we do it together, already brings us closer because we actually did the same action? So, is there some kind of equivalence of form?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:12) The emphasis here is on “don't do”. I remember when COVID started, you explained that we put masks on us, and we're putting in screens because the connection and the way we touch one another is not pure. So, cover yourself and don't come close for the time being. And now, we kind of came close, we came back, there's some friends still on the screens in Ten, but in the world Kli. You can explain, with what approach do we need to return to connection? What is “don't do”? What shouldn't we do? 

M. Laitman: What you understand to be separating people, pushing them apart, these actions don't do. 

Student: Meaning, before I approach connection, which is a positive action, I need to be careful not to do anything negative?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:36) I have it written here from about 15 years ago, where you said that it's one line, one nature - if you want to explain to a person “don't do to your friend what's hated upon you”, it's not yet the correction of the desire to receive. But that foreigner who's still in his desire to receive, he's told, don't harm, and it's also written, don't prevent any rewards from the others or benefits from the others. Is that right? Meaning, in order not to harm, do I need to change nature, or is it enough to remain in my desire to receive, and reach such a degree of not harming others? 

M. Laitman: In order not to harm, I need to change nature.

Student: So, we need to change our nature too. So, what is the meaning of “on one foot”? Because he says, it's the whole… on one leg, he says that's the whole Torah, on one leg.

M. Laitman: “On one leg” means I don't do any harm to the other, as I understand it, to be bad.

Student: And on two legs? 

M. Laitman: Two legs is already…

Student: That's love of others?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And can there be a situation which I don't want to harm, but can it be against the rules? Let's say, there's social rules according to Rabash, and I see that if I were to observe those laws, it can lead to separation in the Ten because not everyone can withstand them. So, what to choose? I know exactly that if we all observe these laws that are correct, but at the moment in our state it causes separation. The Ten won't be able to exist, because not everyone can observe them. So, what do I choose? 

M. Laitman: You choose to approach it gradually, according to the ability of the society to carry them out.

Student: Meaning, the unity is always the goal, actually?

M. Laitman: Yes.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:01) I need to love the friend more than myself. Actually, it lets me collect all the details and to put all of them inside of me and discover the whole collective. How do I implement this in love of friends to get to know the whole Kli? 

M. Laitman: Because by this, you prepare yourself for a complete, tight connection with your friends. And this is enough. You don't need anything more. Everything else is according to your ability to connect with others. So, you come to the reforming light, you come to connect among everyone, and then you will attain in practice what there is in this commandment.

Student: If I want to implement this rule and collect all the individuals in my Ten with the friends, what does it mean to collect all the individuals in the Ten? For me to feel that all the individuals are actually part of me? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: How do I implement this? How do I realize this? Kabbalist said, also you, that's enough too. If I love one friend from the whole Ten, is that enough? Or, do I really need to collect all the individuals, all the friends into me? 

M. Laitman: Why is it enough? 

Student: So, what is it in the Ten to collect all the individuals, all the details?

M. Laitman: I cannot say. No. But it's clear that if you can open your heart and all your help to even one of the friends, it is certain that you'll be able to reach everyone. 

Student: We're always talking about connection, and our goal is to become as one. I feel that I need to constantly aspire for the center of the Ten to be where we all feel towards each other as a more important part than the other, that the other is actually more important than me. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Is this center what allows us to see each time and discover each time the Creator and this love that we're talking about where I seemingly rise above myself and my individual desires?

M. Laitman: If we connect among us in such a way that we have between us one point of connection, then, of course, we come to one center and to one society.

Student: In this article, what is our correction before the Creator?

M. Laitman: Our correction before the Creator is in that we don't want to be separated, divided, but want to be together. And we understand that keeping ourselves as one, by this, we approach the purpose of creation. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:19) Earlier, you answered the friend what is demanded to do when we come here. I heard you said: when you reach a connection and you all feel yourselves as one. The question, in the morning lesson, to feel as one; when we come here at the beginning of the lesson, we feel a certain heaviness, distance, and it gradually softens. Now, each friend that asks raises a deficiency that's revealed in him, and that's how he brings this sensation towards connection. I feel that every friend that brings his lack, it intensifies the connection, brings his unique perspective. Now, the question is, to expand this so that we will all be as one man, if you could guide us, when a deficiency awakens in me but I feel the deficiencies of others, do I need to try to go with those deficiencies of others and not with my deficiency? Is it important for each to understand himself? 

M. Laitman: I don't know what to answer. It seems to me that you need to first of all see that you uphold love your friend as yourself within yourself, and then you will have a more solid basis on which to relate to your friends correctly. 

Student: What is the meaning “within me” when I'm in the morning lesson or before?

M. Laitman: Yes, that this is how you think, this is what you decide. 

Student: Think, meaning exert at being in that state, seemingly, and during the lesson?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: You answered a friend earlier that it's enough to open the heart for one of the friends, and then you will reach everyone, for sure. In the work between us in the Ten, to open the heart to one of the friends, and then how does it work that I reach everyone, or do I need to reach everyone, or the moment I open for one, it's enough? 

M. Laitman: It's not enough, but it opens the way for you to reach everyone.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:21) It seems like in this article, Baal HaSulam asks questions but didn't answer them yet. For example, love thy friend as thyself, he asks, what with love Lord your God? He also continues and adds, that you can settle this article, the statement of love your friend, and the verse that the old Hillel said, meaning don't do to others what's hated upon you. So, there's questions here, what about your Lord, your God, what about loving the Creator? Is that correct?

M. Laitman: I cannot speak about all the conditions that talk about connection, but love your friend as yourself, seemingly, covers everything that can come out from a person toward his friend. This is what I understand.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:36) What does it mean that love is the sum of all the individuals, or the details? 

M. Laitman: Love is the sum of all the details that a person can bring out from himself toward the environment, toward the friends, and accordingly, to the extent that he understands and recognizes all the details that there are in this rule, or in this collective, then he understands the expanse of the whole collective, the gamut of it. 

Student: When I check my intention towards a friend, I don't have the approach to that feeling of love. I can only engage in the details. Love seems to be outside of that range, of that, it's something that wraps it all. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: When a person wants to increase the love, for him to have love, how does he do this if it's something outside of his range? He can only engage in the individuals. If he was opportune to be in front of these individuals, the love is outside. 

M. Laitman: Perhaps, but if we engage in the relations between us and understand that until we fill up the air completely with relations of love between us, we don't come to love the Creator, and we don't observe this condition, this requirement to love your friend as yourself, your neighbor as yourself. And therefore, we should pay attention to this.

Student: When a person really wants to love a friend more completely, what does he need to do?

M. Laitman: He must try to connect with him, to bond with him, and hold on to that connection with all his organs.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:00) He says, don't do to others what is hated upon you. Is that enough? 

M. Laitman: He writes that yes.

Student: So, why do we talk about love your friend as yourself? Why don't we just say that what you hate to not do to your friend? It sounds simpler, that's why I'm asking.

M. Laitman: I don't think so.

Student: So, if a person sees and says to himself, okay, from now on, I am trying to be in “don't do to others what you hate”, will it be enough for him if he tries to observe that?

M. Laitman: Well, in terms of being drawn to each other, no. But in terms of moving away, distance from each other, yes.

Student: Is it a degree before love your friend as yourself, or is it truly the same thing?

M. Laitman: For sure, it's before.

Student: So, if we tell ourselves in the Ten that okay, love your friend as yourself is a very complex degree, there are many details we don't understand yet. Is it correct to now try to aim towards that which you hate to not do to your friend? Is that the correct degree to aim towards?

M. Laitman: Yes, of course. 

Student: Is there any advice for a person if he says to himself, okay, now that's what I want to do. What is correct now, how to start? Because we always talk about love, connection. Should we try to implement what is hated upon you do not do to your friend, or does it start from some other place, or is it the same?

M. Laitman: No, it seems the same to me. To the extent that he feels the inclination to connection with a friend, he should also feel in this, all the laws and conditions for disconnecting from the friend.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:30) I want to understand the manner of work towards the Ten, towards each friend in this commandment of love your friend as yourself. I just heard that I first need to love one friend, love your friend as yourself, and then, through him, reach the rest of the friends. Is that correct?

M. Laitman: Well, it could be that this is how it usually happens.

Student: Do I need to choose the friend? I don't understand how this works.

M. Laitman: He needs to choose friends who think that he has with them a possibility to achieve connection of the hearts.

Student: So, friends, not one friend?

M. Laitman: There should be Ten.

Student: But in order to reach all the friends, can he love through one, to love all the friends like himself? 

M. Laitman: It’s not written that it should be one-by-one, but yes, let's say it is. 

Question (Croatia): (34:47) Is love the friend as yourself a feeling or an action? 

M. Laitman: Probably both.

Question (Women Turkey 7): (35:05) Is self-love the main thing we have to change in the study? If so, then what is it called to love your friend like yourself in the study? 

M. Laitman: Well, it contains it. 

Question (Petah Tikva 6): (35:26) What are the factors that help us come to love the friends like ourselves?

M. Laitman: Just as a person feels that he loves himself and is willing to work to insist on guarding his position, let's say, so this is how we should also relate to the friend. 

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (36:05) How to develop this heart towards one another if the heart is completely blocked and filled with self-calculations?

M. Laitman: So we need to perform all kinds of operations, maybe indirect operations to come closer to each other and connect until we begin to feel what is connection, what is disconnection, and until when and how long do we agree to be disconnected and begin to ask for the Creator?

Question (Woman Hebrew 2): (36:55) We have this tendency to connect to one friend or another more in the Ten. Is it worthwhile to work with this rule with those who are close or specifically with those who are distant? 

M. Laitman: No, we need to pull toward our general connection between ourselves and with the Creator those who are the closest, the clearest, closest.

Question (Women Petah Tikva 33): (37:31) In the commandments of love your friend as yourself, what depends on the Creator and what depends on a person?

M. Laitman: That is how we need to see that everything depends on the connections between us. And the Creator, who sits in the heavens, helps observe what I want to do in my world.

Question (KABU 4): (38:34) How did Hillel come to the conclusion that this is the main rule in the Torah? Can we know this?

M. Laitman: From his feeling in all of reality. That is how he says. 

Question (Turkey 8): (39:00) A person's feelings is a big barrier between himself and his friend. A man has to overcome his feelings, there is no other way, but how can he do it every day? 

M. Laitman: He should try, should try, and then, either ask from the friends, or ask from the Creator, or I don't know what else to do, but he should first reach that state of being incapable.

Question (Petah Tikva 33): (39:38) What does it mean in practice and internally that I love the friend like myself? 

M. Laitman: That I love her with all my forces, qualities, from all that's revealed in me. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:35) I can't understand the difference between the rule and the goal, because he writes here, he says the rule means that some of the details relating to that rule, and each detail carries a part in it in a way that by joining all the details together, you have that rule. So, the goal is clear. You put something before you, and you say that's the most important, and everything else is kind of background noises that are added to it.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: But here our goal is not to come to love the friend but to come to bring contentment to the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, what is this concept of rule? 

M. Laitman: The rule is called a quality which includes within it all the rest of the qualities that we can develop between us, to the Creator.

Student: All the other qualities that we can develop between us toward the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, that means that now in every thought, action, we need to see how we bring contentment to the Creator, or how we realize “love your friend as yourself” in this. 

M. Laitman: How we implement “love thy friend”. 

Student: So, it doesn't matter what a person thinks or feels, he should ask: is this in the direction of loving your friend or not? 

M. Laitman: Yes, that comes before.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:24) I heard that until we fill up the air with relations of love between us, we don't come to love the Creator. What does it mean to fill the air with relations of love?

M. Laitman: That we relate this way towards each other such that besides this situation that stands before us as the goal, we don't want to achieve anything, only this.

Student: And how does it feel when you fill the air with relations of love?

M. Laitman: The connection between all the individuals becomes completely - love.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:48) If there are certain actions in the society or connections with certain friends that feel like they don't bring a person closer to loving others but to the contrary, what should he do?

M. Laitman: He should talk about it, where it seems to him that his action or another actually doesn't bring them closer but rather distances them. 

Student: But he feels this way.

M. Laitman: Yes, that he feels that way. 

Student: So, who does he talk about this with? 

M. Laitman: To whom? 

Student: With whom does he talk about it? 

M. Laitman: To the Ten.

Student: And what if it's not within the Ten? 

M. Laitman: What does he bring? The Ten discusses only things that they feel operate upon them. From there it comes, and in them, they uphold it or use it.

Student: But, let's say that there are activities in society that a person feels that if he does them, he gets further. 

M. Laitman: What is in the society and not in the Ten? 

Student: Dissemination, meals. 

M. Laitman: No, no, no, that's not correct. It has to be also in the Ten, also in the little society, it doesn't matter. But we are talking about a certain topic and deeds that are created and lived in. 

Student: I'll try to ask again. We as a society or as a Ten, we do it. But when a person comes to perform this activity or toward a connection with a certain friend, he doesn't feel it. He feels the opposite. He feels being rejected, repulsive, he feels he's getting further. So, should he move away from this. or should he work against his will? 

M. Laitman: I can't tell you, I can't get this picture.

Student: Let's say that a person comes toward an activity, he has to do any activity in the society, and he feels that if he comes to this activity, this activity distances him. It doesn't bring him closer to love of others but to the contrary. And in his feeling, he feels that if he does this, he moves away from love of others. What should be his next step? Should he not do this? Let's say, this activity is important in the eyes of the society. 

M. Laitman: In the eyes of the society it's important, not in his eyes?

Student: Yes.

M. Laitman: We need to scrutinize. It needs to be scrutinized. There's no... There's nothing that can be done here.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:46) He asks him to teach him the whole Torah when he's standing on one leg. It doesn't come in a way that obligates him. Well, on one leg, kind of, very briefly, concisely. And it gives him the rule of what not, but it tells him to keep studying so he would grow. And that's what you tell us - first of all, the degree of what not gives us the basis. For love of friends, maintaining love of friends as yearning is different in each one. How do we connect it? 

M. Laitman: It's correct that in each and every one we have different work in connection with friends, but this is not something that cancels between us the obligation for connection. 

Student: That's clear. But from what we read, it turns out that we have to exalt the goal before love of friends as yourself. The possibility that we have been given, the yearning, the desire, people asked about coming here to the morning lesson. When you think about it, there's great appreciation here, because each one is trying to bring his best.

M. Laitman: I don't understand what you're trying to say. 

Student: How do we keep this throughout the lesson that each one on the screens or who is here brings his best, and from here we grow?

M. Laitman: That all depends on one's preparation for the lesson. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:51) I still can't understand what is: don't do to your friend that which you hate, in the Ten.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: When we talk about love your friend as yourself, it sounds like something sublime or high, and there's a feeling that we make an effort to do it, and you reach a boundary that doesn't let you come out, and love your friend as yourself. But when you talk about not hating the friend, I don't think there's someone here who, well, maybe in some rare cases where things just blow up. But when we work and meet, it's not something that we openly work on.

M. Laitman: So, what's recommended?

Student: That's what I'm asking. Is it something concealed that we need to understand? Because you also sometimes say, you guys are wearing gloves, you're not touching each other. To me it sounds like, what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours, I'm in my area, you're in your area, we don't interfere with each other's areas. 

M. Laitman: That's a problem, then how will we reach one Kli? 

Student: Right, so I'm trying to understand, to detect. What is this place where I do something against a friend? Because that's not clear to me, what is this place where I am consciously doing something against a friend? 

M. Laitman: That's what there is between us - it's from me to him and from him to me. 

Student: Why don't I feel it? Can I hate him? 

M. Laitman: Because you haven't reached there.

Student: We may be indifferent more. 

M. Laitman: Yes, you have yet to reach such a connection.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:00) We come to special evenings and to congresses, and the topics are very high. We burst into spirituality, we do duties. How do I not miss out on these opportunities? The rule that you can only begin the work with it, of loving your friend as yourself. 

M. Laitman: That's really a problem. If you're asking me, I don't know how... But I'm certain that we are capable, we are capable if only we do this together. The main thing is - together. 

Student: Because that's the point, where I want and the friends want to focus on, that when we come to some special event, or even to Zoom, and the topics are very sublime, bestowing in order to bestow, Lishma [for her sake], and everything is supposed to direct us toward that point. Everything we learn to penetrate this point, which is the friend's heart. There, that point, is this what we should attack?

M. Laitman: Yes, that's where we start to learn the system, and not before that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:50) I, at most, find within me a desire, when I come here, I find a desire to realize my life, to achieve spirituality, but it's all egoistic. I don't find in me some inclination toward the friend. Is the egoistic desire to reach life's purpose, can I transform it, or translate it, into it being realized only in loving others, in loving my friends, in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How do we do such a switch? 

M. Laitman: Ask the friends. How do they think to move through this distance? 

Student: I'm asking because right now it feels like an intellectual change. I don't feel any feeling toward it, toward loving others. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Is that enough? If this is all I have, should I just work with it intellectually? 

M. Laitman: Well, let's say for the time being, yes. 

Student: Okay, another question in that context. We said that don’t do to your friend, that which you hate, is like an intermediary stage. Is this correct to set up an intermediate goal? Or should we strive for the goal, for the final goal, to realize the love to begin with? 

M. Laitman: No, you can also use the means. That too is possible. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:56) We talked about the difference between Lishma and love your friend. They seem, Lishma seems, or for her sake, seems like farther. But I think, how can we even come to loving your friend as yourself if you don't learn Lishma, who will open for you the door to the friend's heart, which should come through the Creator, unless you work for the sake of this action called Lishma, for the sake of the Creator, or for the sake of the Torah. There seems to be a connection between the two. So, how can we connect our inclination to learn Lishma and love your friend to reach this?

M. Laitman: Lishma is for the sake of the Torah, and more.

Student:  And love your friend as yourself, which is the great rule of the Torah? 

M. Laitman: Yes, that's for the sake of connection with my friends. And how I do it together, until then I don't see any difference, rather only that I want for it to take place in our common desire.

Student: That’s what will happen in the common desire? 

M. Laitman: Eventually, it needs to be, love your friend as yourself, love your God, your Creator, and it all exists in one group, in one Ten.

Question (Moscow): (58:45) What do you do with jealousy? I've come to love toward one friend, and the relationships with another friend got worse. 

M. Laitman: Well, so what? 

Student: She labored in love toward one friend, and another friend is jealous, and the relationships have gotten worse. So, what should she do with it?

M. Laitman: What to do with it? Trying to somewhat compensate their recompense there somehow.

Question (Turkey 4): (59:33) Should I try to love a friend like myself even if he doesn't do his duties in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: Try to relate to everyone this way. To all your friends in the Ten. 

Question (Women Petah Tikva 6): (59:59) What to do if there is a certain coolness or indifference from a friend?

M. Laitman: Leave it for the time being. 

Question (Women Petah Tikva 6): (01:00:11) Another question from a friend. What is built in a person who makes strong efforts in love of friends? What is built in him?

M. Laitman: We can call it that the foundations of the temple are revealed in him. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:50) We read in the article that he loves that foreigner. That which you hate, do not do to your friend. I can't grasp the sentence even intellectually. So I'm asking you, why didn't he write what your friend hates? Don't do to him. How can it be that what I hate, my friend hates too?

M. Laitman: If you want to be together, connected together, bestow upon one another, to do something that will be accepted between you. And it turns out that you have no choice. But you receive him as he is. And he receives you as yourself. 

Student: How do we come closer? 

M. Laitman: And by that we come closer.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:15) Between the two sides of the coin where on the one hand you have love, and on the other hand, on the other side, don't do it to your friend that which you hate. Does something come before what? Is something a condition for the other? What should we focus on first? How does it work? 

M. Laitman: If I come closer to some quality of bestowal in whatever it can be, I need to try and include with it something that I don't... Okay. Again.

Student: We have, love your friend as yourself. And that which you hate, do not do to your friend. So, let's begin with don't do to your friend that which you hate. Is that the first thing? Is this what a person should focus on? Or should he also focus on love your friend as himself?

M. Laitman: No, he first needs to rid himself from all the negative things, which is don't do to others what you hate.

Student: Is there something active in this?

M. Laitman: Of course, he prohibits himself from those things that are hated upon the friend.

Student: So, like the friend said, people here, we're not in a place where we do intentionally bad things to the friend. I may catch myself that I'm condemning the friend, or I'm too judgmental, or I don't see them as great enough. So, in these places where I get thoughts, I can do some work. Is this what it means? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Because it sounds like a passive place. For if I'm not condemning the friend, I'm already following don't do to your friend that which you hate.

M. Laitman: No. 

Student: It's not like that?

M. Laitman: No.

Student: So, what is this work in not doing to your friend that which you hate?

M. Laitman: That which you hate to not do to your friend is that all the things in the greatest, most global matters, to the smallest things, you do not do to your friend, to any of your friends if it's not from love towards them. Because to begin with, it's written, love your friend as yourself. 

Student: And what does it mean in practice to uphold this commandment of love? Because Baal HaSulam too writes, I command that you begin to love each other with all your heart. But a person can't force his heart. So. what does it mean? 

M. Laitman: Try every day to compensate him with candies, with something. And then you'll see to what extent it will change the place for you.

Student: What do you mean by candy? Something sweet for the will to receive? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: This work in love of friends, how does it bring me to adhesion with the Creator? Where there's none else besides Him, He's good and does good. What's the connection? 

M. Laitman: Because you can see according to the actions of the friends and how they relate to one another. You want to see this love blossoming between them. And then you learn from this. It has an influence on you.

Student: Because it seems like that situation could exist without the Creator being in the picture. So I'm asking, is there importance to constantly… Is this act in love of friends, if there's no final aim in this, to reach adhesion with the Creator? Is it worthwhile, or is it just the same as people in this world trying to be nice to each other? If I forget the intention, why do I love the friends? 

M. Laitman: Yes. So is there still something in this action? There is a value, after all, because you're working with the ego.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:09) Is love of friends within the Ten? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, we should come to relations of love between us in the Ten. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: What kind of love should there be in the group? Let's say all the friends are sitting here in the room. Which love should there be between us here? 

M. Laitman: I don't know what to answer. But you have several kinds of loves? 

Student: Well, that's the question. Should the love be from within the Ten to the broader group, to the world Kli, is it in circles, or should I have one level of love here within the Ten and a different level of love toward the rest of the friends to the other circle outside of the Ten? How does it work? 

M. Laitman: No, certainly in love, there are all kinds of limitations. But I don't know how to say it. Isn't there anyone here that...

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:44) When we are on the path, for example, I don't like connecting with people all together. I don't want to see anyone. I just hate it. And I also hate someone coming to me and says, why aren't you coming to the meal? Why aren't you coming to the meeting? I hate it. So what? But on the other hand, I understand that for the goal, I have to, I have to have it. It helps me be purposeful. So, will I not come to the friend and tell him, come to the meal? Because I hate it. Naturally. We're talking about natural love. What are we talking about here? What I love, what I hate about my ego or about the point in the heart that wants to reach connection and love, real love, not love of fish, like the example you gave about love of fish as opposed to real, eternal love. There's a difference between them. No? So how to reconcile this? Because on the one hand, if I do to the friend only what is sweet to them, and I see that it's, I don't know, I see that it brings them spiritual death. They want sweetness. Let's give them sweetness so everything will be awesome. Is this the way or not? It's hard to understand it. It seems to me like that's the root of the problem in Tens and on our path in general. Because, for example, the friend asked about the rules of Rabash. You said, no, you don't need to uphold the rules of Rabash if it can bring separation. So, how do we solve this problem?

M. Laitman: It's a question. It's a question. 

Student: And what does it mean not to touch each other? I don't understand. I'm told: Don't touch the friends. It brings them into hatred, and they can separate, they can drop from the path altogether. Don't touch them. Leave them. How can we reach anything if we do this?

M. Laitman: Yes. I agree with what you're saying, and I still don't hear the answer.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:45) With your permission, only one question. Don't do to your friend that which you hate is to hold Torah on one leg. Since there is no reality in one force, we need the other leg, which is love your friend as yourself. Is this correct? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:14) What the friend asked about, what the other friend just asked about, what I feel from these questions is we're dealing with building relations of love between us. And of course, each of us does all these things from his will to receive. And when the conflict between the desires to receive between us appear, then there's a chance to cover everything with love. But then we run away.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: We don't pressure a little more to come to that state. How do we overcome this? How do we overcome the obstacle of love will cover all the crimes? A crime has been revealed. It's a corruption? How do we overcome? 

M. Laitman: How does it seem?

Student: I think we have countless articles of Rabash talking about it. But in real time we forget.

M. Laitman: Yes. There's nothing to do. I see that everyone also don't hear. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:53) Can you continue what the friend asked about? A corruption has been revealed, so now it's an opportunity, because you can cover it with love. But first we have to understand that there is a corruption here, right? You can't cover it immediately and say, everything's fine, let's cover it. First we have to scrutinize the corruption, right? Clarify this. We have to talk about the corruption. Only after we talked about it, we can say, okay, now let's cover it with love, right? Okay, thank you. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:42) It says here that the main desire in our holy Torah is to bring us to the highest degree so that we can keep this statement of love your friend as yourself. How can we constantly look at what we are studying through the prism of love yourself, your friend as yourself? That this is what we're aiming for. Sometimes, for example, we can read Shamati or other things, and we're not quite... It's hard for us to look at it that this is actually leading us to love your friend as yourself. So, how can we lock on to that? 

M. Laitman: I don't know.

Student: Can we connect to the desire that is in the Torah? Because it says that the primary desire in the Torah is to bring us to that. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Can we connect to this desire in the Torah? 

M. Laitman: Yes, certainly. 

Student: How? 

M. Laitman: Through the desire, through the prayer.

Student: It's just that we read so many different things and it's difficult to focus everything so that it is all towards one heart. It's all directed in the same direction. Baal HaSulam also brings everything down to love of friends. Seemingly, everything is resolved through love of friends. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Is there anything that we can do in order to focus all of our efforts in all the directions that we're doing towards the love of friends? 

M. Laitman: Do it. I think it should be clear because that's revealed to you. 

Student: Yes, but sometimes, let's say, we do things in dissemination, or things that are for the benefit of the society, and it's not so simple to unite everything so that everything should be pushing us towards a more internal connection. 

M. Laitman: Yes, it's sometimes scattered. Sometimes you can tie it more directly. 

Question (Kiev 1): (01:18:30) Rav, you said that love your friend as yourself and love the Lord your God, it is all realized in the Ten. When we have our ordinary day-to-day work, how does the Ten appear in which these two rules are kept? 

M. Laitman: When each one feels everyone, and everyone is holding each other, and they understand that what they need is only the force of the Creator that can influence them from above and in this way to assemble them all together. And then in their connection together they will understand all the details of that state. 

Student: This state that you described, it is something that accumulates in the Ten. 

M. Laitman: Yes, gradually it accumulates in the Ten.

Question (Hadera 1): (01:19:58) When we teach a child to do something, we give him a simple task, which he learns how to execute it, then you give him things that are more and more complicated. So, the Ten is the closest circle to us, where we learn basic things which help us to aim towards the goal more precisely. And then if we succeeded, we're being given a greater and greater circle until it's the whole of humanity, the whole world. So, my question is, is the feeling that will come at some point that I have true love towards the whole world, is that a Creator or is it something higher? 

M. Laitman: I think it's the Creator. 

Student: Because if it is so, then the Creator is not a different quality. It's the same thing, it's just that we simplify it to encompass the whole world. Is that how it is? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Maybe we have a problem with the system. Again, women, Moscow, 8. If you hear us. Neither hears. Maybe we can't let them speak. 

Question (Woman MAK): (01:22:11) The depth of the love to the friends, how should it be manifested and how should we realize it, implement it? 

M. Laitman: With mutual help, with an open heart. 

Student: If the Ten did not succeed in its incarnation to reach mutual love, does the Creator give us another opportunity in future incarnations so that we can complete the work?  

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And the degree will be according to what they have attained in a previous incarnation? 

M. Laitman: I can't say. Okay, what are we doing next? 

Reader: We can move on to the next part, excerpts about Hanukkah. Okay, where is it? It's in the study materials. We'll sing a song together and we'll move on to the next part of the lesson. 

Song: (01:23:10)