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

Daily Lesson (Afternoon) May 7, 2024

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Shamati, 148. “The Scrutiny of Bitter and Sweet, True and False.”

Moderator: Hello, today we will learn from the articles of Shamati of Baal HaSulam. We're starting from Shamati 148, The Scrutiny of Bitter and Sweet, True and False. Study materials can be found online in Sviva Tova and in the Arvut systems. Rav, please.

M. Laitman: (00:33) Let's read it first. 

Reading Article: (00:36) “The Scrutiny of Bitter and Sweet, True and False.” 

There is a scrutiny of “bitter and sweet,” and there is a scrutiny of “true and false.” The scrutiny of “true and false” is in the mind, and the scrutiny of “bitter and sweet” is in the heart. This is why we must pay attention to the work in the heart, to be in the form of bestowal and not in the form of reception. 

By nature, only reception is sweet to man, and bestowal is bitter. And the work—to turn reception to bestowal is called “the work in the heart.” 

In the mind, the work is of “true and false.” And for this, we need to work in faith, meaning have faith in the sages. This is so because the worker cannot clarify the matter of “true and false” to himself.

M. Laitman: (02:08) Yes, okay, let's read again. 

Re-Reading Article: (02:24) “The Scrutiny of Bitter and Sweet, True and False.”

There is a scrutiny of “bitter and sweet,” and there is a scrutiny of “true and false.” The scrutiny of “true and false” is in the mind, and the scrutiny of “bitter and sweet” is in the heart. This is why we must pay attention to the work in the heart, to be in the form of bestowal and not in the form of reception. 

By nature, only reception is sweet to man, and bestowal is bitter. And the work—to turn reception to bestowal is called “the work in the heart.” 

In the mind, the work is of “true and false.” And for this, we need to work in faith, meaning have faith in the sages. This is so because the worker cannot clarify the matter of “true and false” to himself.

M. Laitman: (03:52) He needs to clarify and scrutinize the truth and false. He turns to the sages, even the ancient ones that lived 2,000 years ago, and he trusts them in their scrutiny, and by that, he prepares himself that he too can recognize true or false. However, the work in the heart, bitter and sweet, this he can scrutinize more easily.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (04:38) Let's say that a person is turning to the sages for him to clarify what is true or false, and he learns that the truth is to be a bestower like the light, like the Creator. But his heart, what does he do with it? Naturally, reception is sweet too. That's the heart. So, how does what I hear from the sages answer into it? 

M. Laitman: (05:13) This is by the accustoming of yourself to hear more and more the words of the sages, and their opinion slowly trickles into you, and then you start to discern the true things inside your heart, and not the false. And also, when you hear words of wisdom, you scrutinize them in bitter or sweet, true or false, and then when you do that, you scrutinize them in the mind, in the brain.

And you try slowly to gather within reason, within your brain, more and more impressions of the truth, and more impressions from the false, so that you, by yourself, will have strength to scrutinize what is true and what is false. 

Question (Turkiye 2): (07:06) The student is asking about the excerpt where it's written that by nature, only reception is sweet to man, and bestowal is bitter. And the work to turn reception to bestowal is called the work in the heart. So, he's asking, how do we change the heart? What are we working for that? 

M. Laitman: By the values of what is true or false, and what is bitter or sweet. And to the extent that we can ascend in our eyes the force of the false, compared to the force of the bitter, and the force of the sweet, compared to the force of truth. Meaning we need to come to a state that it is clear to us that bitter and sweet is in the heart, and true and false is in the mind.

How do we change it from bitter to sweet or from false into truth? Only by our work, the light that reforms. The light in the Torah brings a person back into the good. What we feel or think, and in such a way, in this work, that we pray that the upper light will come, and it will change for us the feeling of truth or false, and compared to the bitter, that it will be sweet. Then we come to a state where eventually the whole world in the upper light will be sweet, and all the world in the upper light will also be true. 

Student: (09:32): Why does the Creator hate the falsehood, and love those that are direct and loving the truth? 

M. Laitman: The Creator hates the false because it is opposite to His nature, and the Creator hates the bitter, let's say, because that is also opposite from His nature. On His own, He is in a world that is all good. That is all good, we call it sweet in the heart, and truth in the mind. 

Student: I thought a lot about what it means to be direct and straight. I think to be direct is to be confident, to be open towards people, and accordingly, to be open to the Creator. If I cannot be open to the friends, and I cannot be open to the Creator, is it possible to say so? 

M. Laitman: You cannot reach that state because you still haven't corrected all your vessels, and therefore things that you feel as bitter can be, on the contrary, close to sweet. And what seems to you as false, can be in some conditions the truth. It is still too early for us; we need to study more and scrutinize all the states. 

Question (Hadera 1): (11:48) On the path to adhesion to the Creator, there is a certain stage where on the side of nature, what is sweet to a person, is there a stage where it will be bestowal and not reception? 

M. Laitman: Bitter and sweet is compared to our vessels. We are built in such a way that we feel bitter compared to sweet, and true compared to false. So, what are you asking? 

Student: After the barrier from the side of nature for a person, will the sweet be bestowal?  

M. Laitman: No, you are confused. You can say like that, that sweet will be bestowal. 

Student: But in that state, sweet can also be truth? 

M. Laitman: It could be, but you may be confusing people. It cannot be truth that is sweet and false that is bitter. These are different discernments. One we feel in the heart, and the other we feel in the mind. Therefore, we don't need to mix them up. 

Question: (Tbilisi): (13:36) I'm asking you if I can ask something, a question about the morning lesson. 

M. Laitman: (13:38) No, no, no. 

Question (Women ITA): (14:00) How can we come to believe in the truth of our love if we are not yet corrected? 

M. Laitman: Truthfully, we cannot do it yet. But at least we know that we are not in the truth. 

Question (Women MAK 98): (14:38) Why is the truth and false only concerning my scrutinies, when bitter is sweet relates to my corrections? How does it happen? 

M. Laitman: This is how it happens. Because the more we come closer to the true corrections, this is how it pans out for us, bitter and sweet.

Question Women Turkiye 7): (15:17) In the faith in the sages, do I realize the truth of the sage, or does he help me reach the truth of my own degree? 

M. Laitman: Of course, that is it belongs to your degree. We scrutinize what belongs to your degree, truth and false, bitter and sweet. 

Question (Women MAK 51): (16:10) Do we understand correctly that our path up to a certain point is in everything that we feel is sweet in the heart, in a preliminary form, and we stop it, and then we go towards what's bitter, and if everything is done correctly, then the bitter becomes sweet, and that's the correction? 

M. Laitman: No, it doesn't work like that. We will scrutinize how it works. Now we're only scrutinizing the basic terms.

Question (Women MAK 21): (16:49) When a person reveals his true form that he is only in the desire to receive, what is the falsehood that he discovers? What was there beforehand? 

M. Laitman: In that whatever he receives is the truth. 

Question (Women Rehovot 1): (17:25) Is there a constant order in the work? Meaning the first stage is the work in truth and falsehood, and then the second stage is bitter and sweet? 

M. Laitman: No, that's not the order. The order can also be opposite, because truth and false, bitter and sweet, are discerned by different vessels.

Student: Meaning, could it be that first we arrange the mind, and then the heart, or the opposite? 

M. Laitman: I tell you again, there is no order in there.

Question (Women Ukraine 2): (18:15) A question from a friend. How can the Creator hate? After all, He is bestowal and love. Where is the hatred from? 

M. Laitman: The Creator hates or loves. We speak in the human tongue, and that's in order for us to understand each other.

Question (Women Moscow 6): (18:46) What is the scrutiny in the intellect when we attain some truth of the sages? How does it influence our heart, and vice versa? How does the heart, when it clarifies what's bitter and sweet, influence the intellect? 

M. Laitman: That's how it happens within a person because he feels both the bitter and the sweet. And at the same time, he feels truth and false. 

Student: Meaning, it happens in parallel? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Women MAK): (19:28) We need to come to this part, in this stage, when we accept bestowal as the truth, and the opposite for a reception.

M. Laitman: Well?

Student: In order to come to such a clear action of pure bestowal inside, a person needs to make scrutinies that the desire to receive is false, and the desire to bestow is truth. And to ask for the strength to bestow, and faith to carry this out? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How do we check the truth of the bestowal, when habit becomes a second nature? 

M. Laitman: Bestowal cannot become an automatic action, because in order to do an action of bestowal, you need to stop the automatic action of reception, and to recalibrate yourself. 

Question: (Women Heb 2): (20:32) Regarding the truth, many times, the truth is very bitter when we discover it. It's not sweet at all. What do we do? Is there a certain limit there? Or do we simply need, I don't even know how to ask. The first thing is the scrutiny. When you say, this is in the mind, and that's in the heart, many times it connects together. I truly feel in the heart this feeling of the mind, but I see that it's the truth, and it's very, very bitter. This reality is very bitter.

M. Laitman: I understand you, but we have no choice. This is the way we need to scrutinize it and divide it. Meaning, that when I see something, I need to put it in the right place, whether it's bitter or sweet. Is it true or false? And then I scrutinize it within myself, these things until I slowly come to a state where I can determine whether it belongs to the truth, or it belongs to bitter. 

Question: (Women Heb 2): (21:59) What is basically the work? Is the work where a bestowal feels bitter to me, and to ask for the Creator to change me so that I'll feel it as sweet? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question: (Women Spain): (22:23) Can we say that the mind serves the heart? 

M. Laitman: The mind serves the heart, and the heart can serve the mind. All these four discernments, truth, false, bitter, and sweet, can change. The person needs to see how he can change them in order to determine the correct relation to which reality. 

Question: (Women Kavkaz 1): (23:14) These four understandings, at a certain point, appear as higher than all of my calculations. But beyond that, I feel a new sweetness comes from the Creator being great, and I try to serve Him. And from that sweetness, I also need a new intellect in order to work with it correctly?

M. Laitman: In order for this joy from the Creator to be for His sake and not for your sake. 

Question (Women Lithuania 5): (23:55) When a person performs an intellectual analysis, true and false, can he arrive at the emotional experience of bitter and sweet? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Women Moscow 6): (24:42) Can these scrutinies of truth and false, can the Creator do it according to our request? Can the Creator, according to our request, make these scrutinies of truth and false in the mind? 

M. Laitman: Yes, we can.

Question (Women Turkiye 7): (25:13) I don't have a spiritual mind right now, so how can I know that I'm perceiving correctly what the sages are saying? 

M. Laitman: You don't know and cannot know for now. Therefore, now you are being told or it is explained to you what is the discernment between bitter and sweet, and truth and false. That's why it can be bitter, but truth, or sweet, however, it's a lie, a false. And we need to not be confused by them. 

Question (Latin 12): (26:09) How do we guard the soul in order to not cause dirt? 

M. Laitman: The guard is called that you constantly adhere to the truth, firstly, to the truth, and to try to make this truth sweet. 

Question (Women MAK 104): (26:42) Is there a difference between pleasing the Creator and being concerned for the Creator? And how do we scrutinize the true concern for the Creator, not for oneself? 

M. Laitman: Our true work for the Creator can only be after the correction of our common vessel. Therefore, it's good that you think about it now and you are concerned about it, but now it's still too soon to speak about it. 

Question (MAK 27): (27:38) How do these things come together, these scrutinies of bitter and truth and faith above reason? 

M. Laitman: Faith above reason helps us to reveal these egoistic desires that we can correct in order to bestow to the Creator and give Him contentment.

Question (Hadera 1): (28:15) The Creator created a desire to receive which is opposite from Him, but afterward there was a restriction, and then the Partzuf is composed of the Rosh and the Kli. Can we say that the desire to receive is always opposite to the Creator, and only the Rosh, the head, helps to make the scrutinies to come to a prayer? And basically, in this way, to reach a correction? 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, you’re correct.

Question (Tbilisi): (28:54) By my nature, there are things that I'm not ready to do, but the importance of the Creator is so high that I will do it for Him gladly in order to please Him. Is that the correct intention? 

M. Laitman: Yes.  

Question (Lithuania 1): (29:25) The light came, the light departed, and the memory remains. Do we work with that memory, whether it's false or true, bitter, or sweet? 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes. 

Student: This memory is called a record? 

M. Laitman: This memory is a gold record. 

Student: And if we feel something, do we aspire to that? 

M. Laitman: Yes. Yes 

Question (Kyiv): (29:57) You said that we need to make the truth sweet, and then we can hold on to the truth and reveal where the truth and false are. How to make the truth sweet? 

M. Laitman: For that, we need to make these things suited between each other. That the truth and the sweet will turn into their own vessels. 

Question (Women Karmiel): (30:48) Is it during the time of correction, the truth is revealed that I'm completely opposite to the Creator, and then I ask the Creator for correction, and then at the end of correction, the bitter will turn into truth? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Women MAK): (31:20) How to open up to the Creator if you have shame for not being able to do so? 

M. Laitman: These are your corrections. The Creator knows everything. You're not concealed from Him in anything. Understand? You're just concealed from yourself, which is why you relax. You put yourself as, I don't know, as naked towards the Creator. You shouldn't be ashamed of it.

Question: (Women Spain): (32:09) Is the point in the heart a quality that develops from generation to generation? 

M. Laitman: Yes. From reincarnation to reincarnation is what I would say is more correct. 

Question (Women German): (32:43) In the Ten I feel sweet, but also a lot of bitter. And that's always the truth because it stems from the connection with the friends. So in that case, where is the false? Where is the lie? 

M. Laitman: You need to continue. It's still early to talk about the revelation and the falsehood.

Question (PT 22): (33:15) What gives the person the correct option to differentiate between the false in the sweet and the truth which is in the bitter? 

M. Laitman: That's through the work, that in this way a man's work that he's always turning around between truth and falsehood and bitter and sweet until this accumulates for him together, and then he'll know how to determine it.

Question (Women MAK 26): (34:13) If bestowal seems to me as something sweet, and the ego that I'm in is bitter, then what is my work in the heart? 

M. Laitman: For the ego to appear so bitter for you that you wouldn't want to work in it. That's it. 

Student: The truth is really bitter. The heart needs to see in faith above reason. Will that be also bitter? 

M. Laitman: For faith above reason, for it to be bitter. 

Question (Women MAK 25): (35:05) Is it correct spiritual work if every sweet that we get will arise in us a question of is it okay or not? 

M. Laitman: Not necessarily so. No, we don’t need that. If something sweet appears, take it as sweet. Check it again if it's something true and if it's truly sweet. Is it the sweet truth or the bitter falsehood? 

Question (Women Turkiye 7): (36:02) The more I see myself, the more I feel stuck and I want to escape, but I can't get out of myself. How does one escape from one's own prison? 

M. Laitman: How does one escape? He doesn't need to run away from himself or from the prison. He needs to replace his prison with a palace.

Question (Women Polish): (36:48) Many times the false lie in our ego seems as sweet. How do we in the Ten discern between the truth and the false, because many times it's hidden from us? 

M. Laitman: Continue to work on that. I cannot answer you. There are no other indicators.

[Video abruptly shuts off here.] (37:15)