Reader: We are reading selected excerpts from the sources on the subject of crowning the king over us. First excerpt, Rabash, letter 76. 

Reading: (00:16) Excerpt 1. RABASH, Letter 76

It is known that “The whole earth is full of His glory.” This is what every person should believe, as it is written, “I fill the heaven and the earth.” However, the Creator has made a concealment so that we cannot see Him so as to have room for choice, and then there is room for faith—to believe that the Creator “fills all the worlds and encompasses all the worlds.” And after a person engages in Torah and Mitzvot and keeps the commandment of choice, the Creator reveals Himself to him, and then he sees that the Creator is the ruler of the world.

Thus, at that time a person makes the king who will rule over him. That is, a person feels that the Creator is the ruler of the world, and this is regarded as a person making the Creator king over him. As long as one has not come to such a feeling, the Creator’s kingship is concealed. This is why we say, “On that day, the Lord will be one and His name, One. That is, the glory of His kingship will appear over us.

This is the whole correction we must do in this world, and by that we extend abundance in the world, for all the bestowals from above are drawn by engaging in Torah and Mitzvot with the aim to extend His kingship on us.

M. Laitman: Clear? No? Well, such beautiful words, I don't know what there is for me to say about them.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:57) Just to say, the reason we brought this document, Crowning the King, over us, that's because we're entering the holidays of the month of Tishrei, so we talk about the king, the Creator a lot. I wanted to ask, the feeling of the Creator, is that the act of crowning the king, or is there another action that has to be taken, in addition, crowning the king? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, I don't want to decide about anything yet. Let's learn.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (03:36) He says here that a person keeps the commandment of choice. What is the commandment of choice? 

M. Laitman: And you chose in life.

Student: What does that mean? 

M. Laitman: To choose the Creator as the only upper force that defines everything in the world, and to belong only to Him? 

Student: To choose between this and what? 

M. Laitman: And not choosing. 

Student: If a person already feels that, has some inclination towards it, of course he'll choose that. So where exactly is, he's talking about a state of concealment, as I see it, where a person is not yet in attainment.

M. Laitman: Yes, he's in concealment, of course. 

Student: So, what is the choice here? 

M. Laitman: That despite the fact that there is concealment, he chooses that the Creator fills the whole world, revolves the whole world, does everything. 

Student: And a person can create the conditions for that choice to be available, but what does it mean that he chooses? 

M. Laitman: It's called that he has come to a state that his thoughts, his desires, his intentions are all aimed to the Creator, which hides behind creation.

Student: And that's an outcome of his work in the Ten, studying, coming to the morning lessons, meeting all the conditions, and then he's at that state, yes? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, the choice isn't a momentary thing, right? It's the whole work of bringing him to that state, or is there another kind of choice? 

M. Laitman: No, there isn't. Just to bring himself to a state in which he can point to the Creator and to say, this is the Creator we've hoped for, and we've done, and we've performed, and that's it. Okay? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:09) Now, the first stage is where a person, before he comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah, some people believe that there is a Creator. It's just something they were taught, maybe, they didn't understand, learn anything, they were told.

M. Laitman: We are talking about believing where a person has a desire that he can measure, and with the help of this desire, he can perform acts of choice. 

Student: What does that mean? 

M. Laitman: Meaning to withstand his desire. Where if he is inclined to one thing, then by his choice, he builds in him the force by which he can perform something that's opposite that.

Student: I see. So, if I have some desire for selfish fulfillment, because I have the force you talked about, then instead of that, I try to go and bestow, connect, let's say. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Now, when a person examines himself, he discovers that it's impossible to stand against the corporeal desires, food, sex, family, all those things, these are things which seem to be very simple, mundane, but are very difficult to overcome. And in our work, in the group, in the Ten, there, specifically, it seems like there is a place where a person can, he can overcome the space between himself and the friend. So, I'm trying to understand which is more, which is more powerful, a person's own desires, corporeal desires, or the desires which are with relation to the friends. Because before we began working in the Tens, it seemed to me that the first step would be to overcome the corporeal desires. But you see that you can't do it, at least I can't. 

M. Laitman: Well.

Student: But when working with the friends, there is room for work there, there is something to overcome, there is a request you can make, you can receive strength for that. 

M. Laitman: Well, 

Student: maybe it's a different kind of coarseness, where is the coarseness greater, in the corporeal desires or the desires which come between us? 

M. Laitman: Between you it's also corporeal? 

Student: Yes, it's also corporeal, but

M. Laitman: So.

Student: This corporeality, opposite that corporeality, where is the coarseness bigger, greater? 

M. Laitman: You need to feel it. You choose what is greater, what's smaller. 

Student: Where should one start his correction? We always talk about working with the friends, there you begin your correction, is that right? Or should a person first of all start with his own corporeal desires and food, sex, family and those things? Where does the correction start? 

M. Laitman: The correction begins in that place where you feel that you're distancing from the Creator. 

Student: Where I grow distant to the Creator or where I manage to come closer to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Distance from the Creator, that is where correction begins to happen.

Student: Can you perhaps explain a bit more, because I can't grasp this. 

M. Laitman: Wherever you feel that you're getting further away from the Creator, that's where you have to perform corrections, do you understand? In order to come closer to Him. 

Student: Yes, okay.

M. Laitman: That's it. Well.

Student: And so, it doesn't matter what kind of desire this is? 

M. Laitman: That's not important. 

Student: It doesn't matter? Okay, so whether it's the relationships with the friends or my other corporeal issues, it doesn't matter where a person starts. The main thing is that he begins where he feels that he's growing distant to the Creator, that he's distant, right? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And each one can start where he wants. Alright. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:05) What's the connection between the Torah, a person drawing the light, and a commandment? That's the question. 

M. Laitman: Torah is called the light in it, which reforms him, which reforms a person. And the Mitzvah, the commandment, is where a person can correct his actions, his intentions, in order for them to be in order to raise the Creator in his eyes.

Student: The Torah brings him to perform the commandment? Does one precede the other? 

M. Laitman: The Torah leads him to performing a Mitzvah. 

Student: And performing the commandment, that brings him to, again, draw the light? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, it's like the expansion of the light and its departure? 

M. Laitman: No, that's something we will learn. We will learn that. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:31) What's the difference between adhering to His qualities, adhering to Him, even bestowing contentment upon Him, and crowning Him as king, as we are now learning, studying? 

M. Laitman: That's the general, that's the individual? 

Student: What does it mean, that in the holidays of Tishrei, the work we have to do is to crown the king. 

M. Laitman: That's how we say it. That's how all these commandments that we're doing are called under that, they come under that name. That we want to correct our relations with the Creator such that eventually we will reveal Him as the Lord over us, the one who controls and operates upon us. 

Student: Discovering Him to be the owner who controls us, the master, by that do we bestow contentment upon Him? Is that the same action? By that do we crown Him? Or are they different actions? 

M. Laitman: No, it's the same action.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:57) To feel that the Creator fills the whole of reality, I need to feel a place where He's not there, vacant. 

M. Laitman: Well.

Student: What is that space? Where do I discover a space where He is concealed, not there, that He needs to fill? 

M. Laitman: Well, try to feel, try to scrutinize where the Creator is not. 

Student: What is the reality that He fills? Is that the reality I see here, or is it something that we need to build in the relationships between us in the temple? 

M. Laitman: Your desires.

Student: My desires are a reality, that reality? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:56) I wanted to continue the friend’s question regarding the corporeal desires. Why does the Creator give a person corporeal desires to such an extent that it preoccupies him? Why? 

M. Laitman: To kind of employ him in this, so he'll learn how to come out of it.

Student: And what's the right way to contend with a corporeal desire? Because if you try to resist it, it grows stronger, it never lets go. And if you follow up on it, you ask yourself, why did I do that? So, what's the right way to contend with it? 

M. Laitman: This is by you working correctly with the environment. And the environment can, it's like an optical lens that can, where the light that comes to you, it can split it in two. Whereas you will see direct light and reflected light. 

Student: So, if I understand you correctly, you say that we have a corporeal desire? If we have that, there's no chance of contending with it. And that's not why the Creator put the desire there. He put it there with the purpose of you going to a different environment, the group, the friends, Rav. And there you need to work with those states, and only that way you can work with it and overcome it and correct it. 

M. Laitman: Yes 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:56) Being joyful, is that a condition for correction? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How to be joyful as you discover the distance? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, but we need to constantly try to rise from that state, from that feeling.

Student: There's great sorrow from not being like the Creator, and when I discover that, I discover, I feel the distance and the sorrow grows. Where should I search for joy in such a state? 

M. Laitman: It's not simple. How do we come out of a state where we feel sorrow to a state in which we feel joy? We need to understand the depth of these things that are depicted, that depict us, and the height of the things that are delighting us, that are causing us joy. It's special work.

Student: But I feel that in my prayer, many times the prayer fails because there's no joy in my request. And I'm just crying, boo-hoo, fix me, correct me, but where inside the request? I want to know where to search, where to find joy, so as to bring the Creator the right kind of request, to place it correctly.

M. Laitman: This is only with the friends. 

Student: Should I share my sorrow and ask for help? 

M. Laitman: No, not to share your sorrow with them. Why do you need to increase the sorrow in order to bestow from it to all the world? You need to come to a state where it's the opposite of that, where eventually the end of correction will be for you as the final action that will complete all the efforts.

Student: I heard that the place where you should look for joy, that's between the friends, in my opinion. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So that's the entryway to joy. Entering joy and exiting grief, is that the same thing, is it the same door? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How to always follow one path towards the entrance and not to exit? How to look to the entrance and not the exit? 

M. Laitman: Well.

Student: How to pay attention to the next state, not the previous state, not the state I mean now? 

M. Laitman: I don't know. It seems to me that we need to think about the current state and the state where we're raising ourselves to a higher state. And from those two states, in that dynamic, we can build the action. It's like, I don't know where to take the example from, let's say in mathematics. So, we take this action which raises us. Even in that I don’t have the language. In short, we need to go home and rest, and then try to enter once more to Baal HaSulam. 

Announcements: So, thank you to the Rav and the whole World's Kli, and we, tomorrow, Sunday, 6.30pm, building a spiritual society. All the friends are welcome to gather and assemble, also physically in Petah Tikva in our permanent Tens. Now we'll soon go down to the Saturday morning meal, and at 11.45 preparation for the afternoon lesson, and at 12 the lesson will begin.