The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning), March 29, 2024
Part 1: Rabash. Article No. 6, 1985. “And the Lord Appeared to Him at the Oaks of Mamre.”
Reader: Shalom, we are reading the writings of Rabash's article “And the Lord appeared to him at the Oaks of Mamre.” You can send your questions in Kabbalah.info or the Arvut system. You can find a set of materials there and if you're asking a question here, in the study hall, please stand up and hold the mic close to your mouth, and speak loud and clear.
Reading Article: (00:32) “And the Lord appeared to him at the oaks of Mamre.” RASHI interprets, “He gave him an advice about the circumcision. Therefore, He appeared to him partially.” It is written in The Zohar (VaYera, item 17), “‘And the Lord appeared to him at the oaks of Mamre.’ He asks, ‘Why in the oaks of Mamre and not elsewhere?’ And he replies, “It is because Mamre gave him an advice about his circumcision.’ When the Creator said to Abraham to circumcise himself, Abraham consulted with his friends. Aner told him, ‘You are already more than 90 years old; you will afflict yourself.’
“Mamre told him, ‘Remember the day when the Chaldeans threw you in the furnace and the hunger that the world experienced, as it is written, ‘There was famine in the land and Abraham went down to Egypt.’ And those kings that your men chased, and you struck them. The Creator saved you from all of them, and no one could harm you. Arise, and do as your Lord commands.’ The Creator said to Mamre, ‘Mamre, you advised him about the circumcision, therefore I will appear to him only in your palace.’”
There is a question, “How can it be said that if the Creator told him to circumcise himself, he consulted the friends whether or not to listen to the Creator? Can such a thing be said?”
We should interpret this in the work. When the Creator told him to circumcise himself, he consulted with his friends, meaning with his body, since the body is the one that has to perform the act. Therefore, he asked his body if it agreed, or did it think that he should not obey the Creator’s commandment. This is so because man’s friends are in the body, meaning they are the desires which are together, connected to the body, and he must ask them because they are the ones who have to keep the commandment that he received from the Creator. Then, when he knew their opinions, he could know what to do.
We have to know that there are three souls in the body, as it is written in The Zohar, VaYera (item 315), “Rabbi Yehuda said, ‘There are three forms of guidance in man: the guidance of intellect and wisdom is the power of the holy soul. The guidance of lust, which lusts for every wicked passion. This is the power of lust. And a guidance that guides people and strengthens the body is called the ‘soul of the body.’ These three forms of guidance are called Abraham’s friends. That is, he contains them. Abraham went to ask their opinion; he wanted to know the view of each and every one of his friends.’”
Aner told him: “You are more than 90 years old; you will afflict yourself.” In Gematria, Aner is 320, implying 320 sparks that are present there, including Malchut which is called the “stony heart,” which is the will to receive in order to receive, meaning self-love. This is why he told him: “You are already more than 90 years old; you will afflict yourself.” The stony heart, which is the lusting soul, told him, “You have to always try to receive the Light and pleasure, and not afflict yourself.” Therefore, he told him that he should not obey the Creator’s commandment.
Mamre told him, “Remember the day when the Chaldeans threw you into the furnace.” In other words, he told him, “You see that the Creator is behaving with you above reason, because it stands to reason that one who is cast into the furnace is burned, but your saving is above what seems reasonable. Therefore, you, too, cling on to His qualities, and you, too, go above reason. That is, even though it seems reasonable that Aner is right, you should go above reason.”
Eshkol is the soul of the body and sustains the body. It comes from the word, Eshkol [I will consider], meaning that he needs to consider with whom to unite—with a lusting soul, which is Aner, or with Mamre, who is the soul of intellect and wisdom. This is the power of the holy soul, as was written in the words of The Zohar.
Mamre comes from the words, “because he Himrah [disobeyed] Aner.” He told him to go above reason. This is the meaning of “And the Lord appeared to him at the oaks of Mamre,” for precisely where one goes above reason, where there is no intellect, precisely there the Creator appears, and one is rewarded with the Daat [knowledge] of holiness. This is why it is called Mamre [disobeying], which is regarded as above reason, named “the soul of the intellect and wisdom,” because precisely where one goes above reason the intellect and wisdom appear.
It therefore turns out that the meaning of what The Zohar says, that Abraham went to consult his friends, refers to Abraham’s own body. The body needs to keep the commandment, therefore he asked the body for its opinion in order to know what he must do. That is, if he should coerce it or agree to what the Creator had told him. When it says that he consulted with his friends, it refers to the three souls that exist in his body, which are his friends who are always with him.
It is written in Midrash Raba (end of the portion Lech Lecha, and in the beginning of the portion VaYera): “Abraham said, ‘Before I was circumcised, passersby would come to me. Now that I am circumcised, they do not come to me.’ The Creator told him, ‘Before you were circumcised, uncircumcised people came to you. Now, I and my entourage appear to you.’”
We should understand this, as he did not receive an answer to his question. He asked, “Why are passersby not coming now?” What was the answer? No answer is written as to why they are not coming. Instead, he received a different kind of answer—that previously they were uncircumcised and now the Creator comes to him. This does not correspond to the question.
We should interpret this in the work. He said that before he was circumcised the order of his work was that passersby would always come to him, meaning that he had thoughts of people who come and then, people who go. This means that before he was circumcised, he had room for work, for he had thoughts of transgression. Afterwards, he had room for those who come, meaning for repentance, and then, he knew that he was truly working.
But now he does not have room for passersby, yet he longed for work. So, the Creator told him, “You should not regret this, for in the end, your work is on the work of people who are circumcised. That is, your work was not yet in pure bestowal because you were still not rewarded with removing the foreskin, which is called the will to receive.”
Now, however, you do not need to regret the work you had then, as in the end, it was the work of people, which is good work, but still outside, for they were uncircumcised. But now that you are circumcised there is equivalence of form, so I and my entourage may come, which was not so before.
M. Laitman: (13:53) Okay, let's ask, explore, and go a bit deeper into this short article. Please.
Student: (14:06) Is this entire article on the topic of moving from Lo Lishma to Lishma?
M. Laitman: Probably also.
Student: (14:30) Mamre, when Abraham comes to him, the Creator wants you to work above reason and that's why he tells him to do what the Creator tells you. It seems like in the work above reason, there's a point of understanding, of benefit, of something rational that convinces Abraham to do this work, nevertheless. How is it that above reason, there's still some reason?
M. Laitman: Okay, maybe another question?
Student: (15:37) When he is saying, finally there was work of people which is nice work but it is still outside as they were uncircumcised but now that you circumcised there is equivalence of form, so it tells us everything he writes the Lord appeared to him in Oaks of Mamre, it's external work, but if you don't do the internal work, nothing will come out of it. That's the summary of what he writes here in the final few lines. Externality and inner work. We read it many times with you.
M. Laitman: Okay, more?
Student: (16:32) When we read Rabash excerpts, there's a great deal of inspiration and inner filling. The question is, how can we read these excerpts with the aim of drawing the light and not to fall into vessels of pleasure?
M. Laitman: Try and see, there's none as wise as the experience.
Student: Where do the intentions come to?
M. Laitman: What do you mean, where? To the person.
Student: Should they come to the different situations of a man?
M. Laitman: Yes, desires.
Student: What do they clothe on?
M. Laitman: Man's desires.
Student: Are they preceded by making room for them to come? They can be done this way, and also in coercion, meaning this command from above, and it works, or the light prepares it, this inner commandment.
M. Laitman: That, too, is a question. Perhaps a question.
Student: (18:12) It's written about three inner discernments, Aner on the one side, Mamre on the other side, and in the middle, Eshkol. It has to consider who you should connect with, the lasting soul, Aner, or Mamre, the soul of intellect and wisdom. How to strengthen the center discernment, the middle one, who helps you figure out who to go with, and help you go with Mamre and not with Aner?
M. Laitman: That's already an outcome, how we strengthen that. Yes, all right, we'll clarify that.
Student: (19:01) The Creator says to Abraham, do this circumcision, meaning work in bestowal above reason. What does it mean that he was 90 years old? What was he up until he was 90? What did he do? Was it in order to bestow?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: (19:29) He says that Abraham regretted that he couldn't accept people and maybe show them proper hospitality. It seems as if you don't need to deal with the externality. Once he is circumcised, he doesn’t need to engage with it anymore. It's not clear?
M. Laitman: What is not clear?
Student: He has to let go of external work and deal only with inner work and people can't come to him, he passes by only the Creator and His entourage?
M. Laitman: Well, it sounds like that's what's important.
Student: He says that it's beautiful work and he can't deal with it anymore.
M. Laitman: Why? Where does it say he can't do that?
Student: In the end.
M. Laitman: But now, for him the main work is the new scrutiny.
Student: Now that there's an equivalence of form, me and my entourage can come. All the work he had with passers-by is now over. It seems like great work. He accepted the people, he worked with the desires, with aim, if you want, the Creator. Now he has no more contact with these things?
M. Laitman: I think so. It doesn't disturb him.
Student: (21:15) Abraham hears these three voices inside of him, and he examines them and eventually he chooses Mamre, the voice of Mamre, his advice to go above reason. Abraham has this capacity to examine all the states and from that, he decides that he is going against the body, above reason?
M. Laitman: Why? How does he choose? By what?
Student: He wrote that there was something with the Chaldeans, where he was thrown into the furnace, and they told him, just like the Creator saved you there in that dark place, do like that. What is this place? Who is this voice that speaks to him? It sounds like a very exalted place. It is not in order to bestow; it is before the choice?
M. Laitman: Yes. It is a new place of choice.
Student: (22:31) What does it mean to choose? It is a scrutiny he does over the three states, the three parts you have in the vessel. He simply scrutinizes the measure of going above reason. It is not like he is choosing out of the three. The three exist in him. What do we do after the scrutiny? What is the act after the scrutiny?
M. Laitman: That you are working with what you have chosen.
Student: In order to receive, he continues to do the scrutiny, and also above reason, all three things the person continues to do?
M. Laitman: No, you attract them to what you chose.
Student: How do you attract them?
M. Laitman: That we will talk about later.
Student: (23:28) I didn't understand the question from the Creator. If the Creator commanded him, what does it mean that he goes to consult with his friends?
M. Laitman: That refers to the friends in his own body. He is only examining. To what extent can he adhere to what the Creator commanded and can he fulfill it.
Student: Consulting with the friends, is that a necessary process?
M. Laitman: Necessary.
Student: What makes a person choose the advice of one friend over the other?
M. Laitman: That depends on what he is working on. Meaning the extent to which he is in contact with the Creator's commandment.
Student: What kind of choice does a person have, truly? Choose the counsel of this or that? Or, as the friend asked, it's a scrutiny where he has to go through all the friends, listen to everyone and there's no choice. You simply have to go through an inner process.
M. Laitman: Okay, I hear.
Student: (25:00) He says that you should know that there are three souls in the body. Mamre, Aner and Eshkol, suddenly there's Abraham. Is he like the fourth one, where is he in this process? The system he's describing is interesting.
M. Laitman: Yes, we'll have to read again. Let's hear.
Re-reading the original source: (24:57) “And the Lord appeared to him at the oaks of Mamre.”
Student: (39:31) About Abraham's complaint at the end, on the one hand, it says there are no more ups and downs and so forth, so it says that he adheres to the Creator. Why does he have a complaint? On the other hand, if he has a complaint, he's probably not in a state of correction and he has no more work.
M. Laitman: What's the argument?
Student: He says that he has no transgressions and accordingly he has no repentance to the Creator. As far as I understood.
M. Laitman: Do you agree with him?
Student: (40:33) Every time you say, read the article twice, three times, five times at home and I want to ask you, when I read this article, what am I supposed to connect to? Many things are unclear to me here. It's being said, but it's not clear. He writes that when you read the article, it has to be above reason. No intellect goes with the reason and only then the intellect and wisdom appear so what do we need to think when we read such an article that is so unclear? We are clarifying it here, but really, what is the above reason we read about here?
M. Laitman: We read it a thousand times until it becomes clearer and clearer until we understand what's written there.
Student: Yes, but again, you always tell us to connect to it emotionally. Am I supposed to better understand it intellectually each time? Or what? How do we do it? What work?
M. Laitman: The work has to be in the feeling until you reveal in the feeling what it's talking about.
Student: Okay, so the emotions are supposed to appear after you read so many times?
M. Laitman: Yes, many participants.
Student: One influences the other, you say?
Student: (42:12) Can there be a state where what Mamre tells me now, will tomorrow be clarified as Aner? Meaning that Mamre of today is Aner tomorrow and each time I improve that way. What I thought that I'm doing in order to bestow and so forth, ultimately everything appears to be in order to receive. Maybe there's also a role switching between Aner and Mamre, so Mamre improves, there's a dynamic here in the article. It's not that a person just chose Mamre and that's it, now for eternity there's no other choice.
M. Laitman: True.
Student: There's always this dynamic here?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: I'll pour out my heart for a second. My wife passed away a month ago, and she brought me to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, in fact. In 2016 to Congress in February she brought me, and we really connected and so forth. After she passed away, I saw that from 2016 to 2024, until a month ago, everything was just one lump of in order to receive. Everything, everything. Now it's like there's a new chapter where I can begin to see if maybe there's something that can be done in order to bestow but it's very difficult if you could say something about this.
M. Laitman: I can tell you about such articles like this, you need to read many times, and each time see what awakens in you more and how to look from within these awakenings, when you detect them, what is your general state, and then you will see how the Creator is working with you, advancing you.
Student: (45:22) I hope I'll be able to ask that. Abraham receives a commandment from the Creator, and he goes and asks and consults the aspects of his body. In another state, he receives an instruction from the Creator, and he says, how will I know that I'll inherit it? Moses also has questions about the instructions of the Creator, he doesn't know how to do it, then he says, you sent me to Pharaoh, and he only did bad to this nation, and so we see that in states of very great adhesion, still, a person has questions and even complaints to the Creator, and the Creator relates to it and answers, and the person does advance. My question is, how to turn to the Creator correctly, not by way of complaints in order to receive, but in a way that advances you in the work?
M. Laitman: It depends on your intention. What do you wish to come to? I want to reach a greater degree of adhesion compared to where I'm at right now. That's how I'm asking. That's the main thing for me right now. How to reach greater adhesion. And then I'm asking and that's why my questions, my scrutinies, they're okay. And the Creator answers me.
Student: Before I even ask the Creator, what do I have to check within myself?
M. Laitman: You need to check with what are you going to the Creator, very simple.
Student: What do you mean, with what?
M. Laitman: With which question?
Student: Yes, with what question I need to get to the Creator before I turn to Him?
M. Laitman: Yes, so scrutinize.
Student: Okay, but what should be the intention before I turn to the Creator?
M. Laitman: Scrutinize with which question, with which quality, with which action you wish to turn to Him.
Student: Is there a way to identify whether the intention of turning to the Creator is to achieve greater adhesion or to complain, or maybe it's just the evil inclination looking for excuses to run away from the work? Can you identify that before you turn to the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How?
M. Laitman: Yes, there's a way to scrutinize it because it's in you. That's what you ask, how can you truly advance with this question or some other action? I need to try and depict it.
Student: (49:15) Everything actually happens within the person. He feels everything there, the commandments of the Creator. What's the connection between the friends within man's body, his inner friends, and my friends in the Ten, is there a connection?
M. Laitman: There has to be.
Student: What is it?
M. Laitman: It is possible you do not, you can detect the connection between them. Maybe you are doing your own scrutiny, with your own internal soldiers, your internal friends. But in order to scrutinize things with them, you have to be connected with the friends in the Ten, then it becomes a solid transgression.
Student: The friends in the Ten, are those who direct me to work correctly with my inner friends?
M. Laitman: You have to see that, this, you have to see. It is not that they are more internal, but they influence you.
Student: Again, it's two things: There are friends in the Ten, there are friends within me? Two things or is it the same thing?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: How many friends in me according to what's written here, he says three friends. Besides that, I also have friends in the Ten, I'm talking about them, those sitting here.
M. Laitman: Those are Nine.
Student: Yes, what's the connection between these friends and those friends?
M. Laitman: The three friends that are in you are your inner friends, your inner qualities, with which you need to connect, consult, and see what's going on. And you are concerned about being connected to them all the time. And the external friends are those with whom you are doing any external action that you are capable of doing.
Student:: How do the external actions I do with the external friends influence the inner friends and the consultation or work with them?
M. Laitman: They influence, of course, they influence. We scrutinize one with the help of the other.
Student: Another question, if possible, the argument of Mamre that the Creator saved Abraham from the furnace, which is above reason, and therefore Abraham now needs to go above reason, as well. Why is that actually above reason? It turns out that I need to behave in a certain way because that's how the Creator responds with me so I have an example, and I need to continue.
M. Laitman: Abraham could not save himself in the furnace if not through an action of going above reason.
Student: This shows you that you were working above reason, so do the next section above reason. But it sounds like it's already within reason. What is above reason here, if I'm given the argument and the example of the furnace from the past. So, what is above reason about it here?
M. Laitman: You have to answer that, go over it again. I am happy there are many questions but you need to understand them, typically.
Student: (53:24) I wanted to clarify, some questions you don't answer, you keep that deficiency. When we read the article a second time, I think we were able to better hear the article. Also, in the friend’s example after the second reading, he's in inner turmoil, as if it worked on him more. There's a great meaning to the deficiency with which we read the article, especially when the friends become revealed. My question is, he writes, after you are circumcised, there's already equivalence of form, so I and my entourage may come, which was not so before. This entourage, it's the second time that we run into it. It's also written in None Else Besides Him. If a person sees that there are things in the world that deny the higher household or the entourage, what is that entourage?
M. Laitman: Entourage is a circle that is close to a person. His friends in the Ten, typically, that is an entourage.
Student: (55:21) Eshkol considers, how does he weigh what he considers?
M. Laitman: Again?
Reader: (Explains) Again, it says about Eshkol, one of the friends, that it comes from the word, Eshokel, to consider. What does he weigh on the scales?
M. Laitman: I do not know, it doesn't matter what but his job is to weigh things, to consider.
Student: What does he weigh?
M. Laitman: What does he weigh? Typically, money.
Student: (56:24) In the beginning of the article, he asks, why did he even go to ask his friends, the Creator said he should do it. Then later in the article, he says that he has to clarify whether he has to go by coercion with them, or they agree to what the Creator said, that's the reason he went to consult. First, it's clear that they'll never agree, they are three different forces, they cannot agree. One is a plus, so one is above reason, and the other one helps make a decision. So they can't agree. The question is what does it mean to go by coercion here if the Creator gives the instruction or direction to the creative being, what is this scrutiny? What does it mean these two options, the option of going by coercion?
M. Laitman: To scrutinize what exists in those three points and try to connect them. Try to connect them.
Student: What does it mean to go by coercion?
M. Laitman: It means to advance by a person holding them together.
Student: That means to advance by going above reason?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: (58:11) Is Rabash, in this article, trying to give us a place for the process where the power of Abraham takes a person in the process from going out of your country? It’s taking him on his journey that he knows, and he wants to correct it. Then he comes here and says, the Creator appeared to him in the Oaks of Mamre, that's an awakening from above. That the Creator gives, the Creator gives one an awakening, and that struggle begins inside a person, the one we've described with these three lines here. Aner says we went through 90 years, 90 changes, a place where you're reaching the peak, the height, the hundred. It is an inner struggle. A person, one objects to it, and one says, go, go with the Creator, He did all these miracles to you. Was Rabash's intention in the article to talk about the time before a person rises a degree, he comes out of his place?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes, you can say that.
Student: (59:59) Closer to us is the work in the Ten, to talk about connection, finding the Creator between us. There are those uncircumcised, who come to work, who used to rejoice in this work. Now he regrets that he no longer has this work. What does it mean in the Ten, the covenant is seemingly, cut off the foreskin, meaning we don't use certain things inside the Ten. We let the upper entourage and the Creator to be revealed in the Ten. Is there a process in the Ten where we come to the decision that there are desires that we truly remove with the work between us, and we don't touch them?
M. Laitman: Yes, and what?
Student: It's as if before we, also, had this work, we came with these desires into the Ten, or the resistance, or all kinds of other desires. We discovered that there is work above reason, that we have done some of it. To get thrown into the furnaces because we did some work, we didn't just get tossed into the furnace for nothing. You don't want to come to the lesson, they change the clock, all kinds of nonsense, where the body objects and we go above them to be together with the friends. This method that Aner tells a person, the Creator loves the method of above reason, that's how I wish to be revealed. How does He bring a person in the Ten to cut off some desires that they would not return? That it's clear to us that we're not using those desires any longer, is there such a decisive moment a person has to come to?
M. Laitman: Yes, we weigh, and with what we can join above reason, and with that we go forward.
Student: In all the articles where he tells us how to connect in the Ten, they also have such points where he advises us how to do it.
M. Laitman: To give you practical consultation, he cannot tell you that. Everyone might have his own depiction of it. But what you more or less have to do, yes, that follows a man's inner feeling.
Question (Women Unity): (01:03:03) If Aner tells Abraham not to heed the Creator's advice, why is he also part of the entourage?
M. Laitman: Because that is his reason, not to listen to the reason of women, yes.
Student: (01:03:40) How to identify the qualities in me, these friends?
M. Laitman: That is a completely different kind of work. That is work that had to be there before. We always want to be connected to the friends, internally, so that each one feels that it lives in him.
Student: What was Abraham's job before and after the circumcision?
M. Laitman: What, did he work? Before circumcision, he did all kinds of actions of adhesion with the Creator, and also afterwards. However, the circumcision is a one-time action by which he comes to adhesion.
Question (Women Moscow 5): (01:04:40) What does it mean that a Creator speaks to Abraham?
M. Laitman: It appears, it is a kind of a revelation that a person feels that with that discernment he has connection.
Student: It's written, remember how the Creator was, what the Creator did with you in the furnace. Does it mean that a person cannot go above reason before the Creator appears to him?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: (01:05:30) I'm repeating the friend's question: After Abraham was circumcised, he was corrected. How is he, how come he is regretting not doing the work from before, you know, with passersby?
M. Laitman: Because then he had to invest a lot of forces, and he was in doubt, yes, no, and so forth. And he would overcome all kinds of difficulties that awakened in him. Now he does not have that, now he is clean and the work he did have, he is now sorry for not having it.
Student: When we read it many times in our work, we savor the Congress that was, some event that passed. Is there an inner voice in you that the Creator is asking it to go forward?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes.
Student: (01:06:45) I didn't understand the scrutiny of what are the three friends, the three forces. The first is intellect and wisdom, then lust, then the soul of the body. What is each one of them? What is intellect and wisdom?
M. Laitman: One has to scrutinize with these three discernments in him how along with them, he devotes himself to the Creator. Because of what is happening now in this status of circumcision, he is going above reason and identifying with the Creator. With all that the Creator performs, that is it, that is the point of Abraham.
Student: Yes, the goal is clear, the reason for consulting. Practically, what does it mean that I come to the powers of the intellect and wisdom and then the power of lust, and then the last one is definitely not clear, the soul of the body?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: I can interpret that you can work with such forces. Or you only work with them after the Machsom, the barrier. But now you can't really detect them?
M. Laitman: Certainly, our work is mostly after the barrier.
Student: This interpretation, what will help?
M. Laitman: I don't even know how to interpret things that are still not clear to us. Let us leave it alone.
Student: (01:09:13) Many years, a person yearns for the revelation of the Creator. Then comes a time when the Creator tells him, go circumcise yourself. What does he want, what is the Creator asking him to do? What is this action?
M. Laitman: To get rid of the three impure shells.
Student: How can a person do it?
M. Laitman: He scrutinizes that. Terrible wind, big clouds, and fiery flame.
Student: Is it within a man's power to do it?
M. Laitman: It is in man's power to ask for it, to ask.
Student: In order to ask, what do we have to do? To understand all these scrutinies, to get into them? What to ask exactly?
M. Laitman: To ask for cutting off the connection he has with these three desires.
Student: (01:10:26) Yesterday you told us how Rabash was very definitive and insistent. He wouldn't let anyone leave his Ten and his friends. Is the Ten in the reason of the upper one?
M. Laitman: That is how we should look at it, yes.
Student: Because I truly feel it through this article. That the Ten is, you have those inner conflicts but eventually in the Ten, also in the Ten we have this. Eventually the agreement, the Creator comes to Abraham and says agree with me and once you agree with me, you’ll have no work, the work is not going to be difficult. I feel like every decision in the Ten is seemingly the agreement of the upper one. How do I say it, two directions: Our connection with the Creator is through the friends, to receive and to bestow to Him. It's all through the Ten?
M. Laitman: Yes, of course. It is good that you get to know that.
Student: (01:12:00) It's not written here but Ishmael also did this Covenant. He doesn't really get rid of all the shells. If he brings Ishmael into this covenant, Ishmael is still there in the covenant. He's, like, stuck with us forever?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes, you are right. We will ask about it a few more times.
Question (Czech Slovak 4): (01:12:54) What kind of the act is this circumcision of the heart?
M. Laitman: Circumcision is the action that cuts off our connection to the Creator. Meaning there is something here that cuts off that connection.
Question (Turkey 2): (01:13:38) How can the body distance itself from the intention to receive with the Klipa because he himself is able to receive. How can he remove himself from the intention to receive?
M. Laitman: Certainly, the body cannot do it on its own but it knows that if it asks this from the Creator, it will get support. The decision has to be in the mind but in practice, certainly the Creator does it.
Question (Almaty 1): (01:14:26) Circumcision is a one-time thing for life or each time a person has to do it?
M. Laitman: The circumcision is a single-time action and then it does not need to be repeated.
Student: What makes a person choose once and for all?
M. Laitman: When a person identifies that there is an evil inclination in him, he must cut off that connection between him and that evil inclination. That is the sign of the circumcision, that is how it is. Now, it is done in various forms, let us say in various ages. For Jews, it is on the eighth day and for Arabs it is typically at the age of 13, right? That is it, and then there are other smaller nations on planet earth who also do this action of circumcision, which is only for men. For women, what is being done is not according to the Torah, at all. That is not following the Torah.
Question (Beer Sheva): (01:16:24) I have many questions; I'm reading an excerpt. Remember the day, it's on page 80: “And that bad in the world and a person cannot do bad for you. The Creator saved you. Remember the day when the Chaldeans threw you to the furnace and the world experienced. It's written, the famine and the land that Abraham went down to Egypt. And those kings that your men chased and struck them, and the Creator saved you from all of them and no one could harm you. Arise and do as your Lord commands. The Creator said to Mamre, Mamre, you advised him about the circumcision so all of you to him and in your palace.”
It appears that this is the building of the spiritual deficiency and that work that they gave him to do above reason that's given in the whole article. I'm asking, they asked about the work of the 90 years, and he let go of the doubts through the foreign work, due to the Torah of Israel in adhesion with the Creator, so that's what the person does. In the three lines, the person strengthens the right line and says, look what I gave you, everything is given you on the left, all the doubts, the resolution of the doubts. Is that correct, that whole paragraph that speaks about a lot of things in the way of the circumcision with the Creator and adhesion with Him? Is that the 90 years that he did?
M. Laitman: Thank you for the scrutiny.
Question (Women Turkey 10): (01:18:39) It speaks about passers-by and equal ones. That there was a place where they were equal in order to bring about repentance. How do we bring ourselves to true repentance?
M. Laitman: We check ourselves, our desires, and intentions, and then, upon those that are in us on the way, and we see we cannot rise above, we ask for forces from above and then we come to correction.
Question (Women Toronto 1) (01:19:48) It says that before he was circumcised, he had room for work then it says afterward, he knew that he was truly working. There's this discrepancy between having room for work and truly working. Is truly working when we are making more and more room for the Creator between us?
M. Laitman: Yes, that is correct.
Question (Woman USA West): (01:21:02) What happens with his friends after the circumcision? What happens with Aner, who represents the stony heart?
M. Laitman: There is a problem with your microphone, I could not hear anything.
Question (Tel Aviv 1): (01:22:19) According to Mamre, he wants to just replace one pain with another. Is that the God who wishes to benefit His created beings?
M. Laitman: Again?
Student: According to Mamre, since the Creator saved Abraham from the Chaldean furnace, from burning in it, He's replacing one pain with another. How does he benefit His created beings with such an approach?
M. Laitman: Do you guys understand what he is saying? It seems to me like you understand.
Student: Yes, it is written, Mamre says that the Creator saved you from the burning fire, which is above reason, above nature. You too, need to respond to the Creator's request for you above reason, above your nature. That is what's written. The friend is asking whether such a determination that comes from the Creator to Abraham is one that comes from the Creator to the created beings. It sounds like more of some kind of calculation, that I did you this favor and now you do me one?
M. Laitman: Well, so what? We make such calculations many times. We have such claims.
Student: But it's not benevolent. He concedes one pain and brings another one in its place, He doesn't benefit us.
M. Laitman: But it is closer to the goal.
Student: It's what? No, I didn't hear, what, what did you say?
Reader: Rav said that it's closer to the goal.
Student: Abraham then gained the ability to care about himself and say no, it's as if he's the loyal soldier and there's the other one who's not. Then you need to balance between them, how do you work with these forces?
M. Laitman: We have from within these three forces a true, clear direction of what we do.
Student: When Abraham approached them to consult with them, there were these three friends among them. Who is asking the question? Who is me, who's asking these questions to the friends?
M. Laitman: A person. The point in the heart of a person.
Question (Women Almaty): (01:25:44) My question is, this male desire becomes restricted according to the circumcision, meaning reaching bestowal in order to bestow. On behalf of the female side, the desire to correct, reception in order to bestow, is that possible to say?
M. Laitman: No comment.
Question (MAK 4): (01:26:32) There's this feeling that the Creator behaves above reason, on the other side, it gives blows to the will to receive. What does this feeling say, what's its meaning?
M. Laitman: Again?
Student: There's this feeling that the Creator acts above reason on the opposite side?
M. Laitman: What does that mean, from the other side?
Student: The connection with the Creator is in this bad feeling, it's felt as being above reason, that feeling. What's its significance, what does it mean?
M. Laitman: You need to correct it; you need to adhere to what comes from the Creator in your heart.
Student: Well, I accept that it comes from the Creator, but the feeling doesn't go away.
M. Laitman: We need to continue to work.
Question (ITA 3): (01:27:56) What does it mean to make a place in the Ten for repentance?
M. Laitman: To make room in the Ten for repentance is that each of the friends is willing to receive, to accept his whole group in his heart with love and connection. So they will come and He will embrace them together and bind them together to one connection.
Question (ITA 1): (01:28:50) After the circumcision that a person performs there's adhesion with the Creator. Do the forces of the body influence him?
M. Laitman: Yes, of course, the forces of the body influence him, they strengthen the connection.
Question (H10): (01:29:27) Is there work of a person before he is circumcised? Then after he's circumcised, there are passers-by and those who are seated there and then there's the ones, the entourage who come to meet him. What's the difference between the work of one who is circumcised and one who is uncircumcised? What's the style of work?
M. Laitman: The kind of work is that he does not have the desire to receive after he is circumcised.
Student: What's with the ascents and descents after he's circumcised?
M. Laitman: In his vessels, he does not anymore have desires to receive.
Student: What does he have?
M. Laitman: The first nine.
Student: It's just ascents in adhesion, there are no ascents or descents during the time of the preparation?
M. Laitman: Yes, there are none.
Question (Salt Lake City): (01:30:27) In the work in the Ten, what are these places when the Creator is revealed when he was revealed to Abraham before circumcision and after? How can you bring that place to the Creator and talk to the friends?
M. Laitman: Truly, turn to the Creator and ask closeness for everyone, nearing for everyone, and to subjugate himself before this action so that the Creator will do it. Because a person is not capable but it's possible.
Reader: We're going to go to the next part of the lesson. And before that, we'll sing a song together.
M. Laitman: What is the next part?
Reader: “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”, item 47. But before that, we'll sing a song.
Song: (01:31:39)