The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: October 25, 2026
Part 1: Rabash. According to What Is Explained Concerning “Love Thy Friend as Thyself”. Article No. 7, 1984.
Reader: Hello friends, in the first part we will go into a lesson with Rav from December 2002. It's based on the article "According to What Is Explained Concerning 'Love Thy Friend as Thyself.'" This is from Rabash. We'll read the article together in the Tens. We have 16 minutes for this. Go ahead.
Reading: (00:32) According to What Is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’”
Article 7, 1984
According to what is explained concerning “Love thy friend as thyself,” all the details of the 612 Mitzvot [commandments] are contained in this rule. It is as our sages say, “The rest is its commentary; go study.” This means that by keeping the 612 Mitzvot we will be rewarded with the rule, “Love thy friend,” and following that, the love of God.
Thus, what does love of friends give us? It is written that by gathering a few friends together, since they each have but a small force of love of others—meaning they can carry out the love of others only potentially—when they implement it, they remember that they have decided to relinquish self-love in favor of love of others. But in fact, one sees that he cannot relinquish any pleasure of the will to receive in favor of another, not even a bit.
However, by assembling a few people who agree that they have to achieve the love of others, when they annul themselves before one another, they are all intermingled. Thus, in each person there accumulates a great force, according to the size of the association. And then each can execute the love of others in actual fact.
So what do the details of the 612 Mitzvot give us, which we said are in order to keep the rule, since the rule is kept by love of friends? And we see that in reality, there is love of friends among the secular, too. They, too, gather in various circles in order to have love of friends. What, then, is the difference between religious and secular?
The verse says (Psalms 1), “…nor sat in the seat of the scornful.” We must understand the prohibition of the “seat of the scornful.” If he slanders or speaks idle words, then the prohibition is not because of a “seat of scornful.” So what does the “seat of the scornful” give us?
Actually, the meaning is that when a few people come together for the purpose of love of friends, with the intention that each and every one will help his friend improve his corporeal state, each anticipates that by having more meetings they will profit from society and improve their corporeal state.
However, after all the meetings, everyone calculates and sees how much they have received from the association for the self-love, what the will to receive has gained by that, since they invested time and effort to benefit society. So what have they gained by it? One could probably succeed more if engaged in self-benefit, at least the part of his own efforts. But, “I entered the association because I thought that through it, I would be able to gain more than I could gain alone. But now I see that I have gained nothing.”
Then one regrets it and says, “I would be better off using my own little strength instead of giving my time to society. However, now that I have given my time to society, in order to gain more properties through help from the society, I finally realize that not only did I not gain anything from society, I even lost what I could have gained alone.”
When someone wishes to say that love of friends should be engaged in for the purpose of bestowal, that everyone should work to benefit others, everyone laughs and mocks him. It seems to them like a kind of joke, and this is a seat of seculars. It is said about it, “but sin is a reproach to any people, and every grace that they do, they do for themselves.” Such a society detaches one from holiness and casts him into the world of mockery. This is the prohibition of the seat of the scornful.
Our sages said about such societies, “Disperse the wicked; better for them and better for the world.” In other words, it is better that they do not exist. However, it is the opposite with the righteous: “Assemble the righteous; better for them and better for the world.”
What is the meaning of “righteous”? It is those who want to keep the rule, “Love thy friend as thyself.” Their sole intention is to exit self-love and assume a different nature of love of others. And although it is a Mitzva [commandment] that should be kept, and that one can force oneself to keep, love is still something that is given to the heart, and the heart disagrees with it by nature. What, then, can one do to make love of others touch the heart?
This is why we were given the 612 Mitzvot: they have the power to induce a sensation in the heart. However, since it is against nature, that sensation is too small to have the ability to keep love of friends de facto, even though one has a need for it. Hence, now he must seek advice on how to actually implement it.
The advice for one to be able to increase his strength in the rule, “Love thy friend,” is by love of friends. If everyone is nullified before his friend and mingles with him, they become one mass where all the little parts that want the love of others unite in a collective force that consists of many parts. And when one has great strength, he can execute the love of others.
And then he can achieve the love of God. But the condition is that each will annul before the other. However, when he is separated from his friend, he cannot receive the share he should receive from his friend.
Thus, everyone should say that he is nothing compared to his friend. It is like writing numbers: If you first write “1” and then “0,” it is ten times more. And when you write “00” it is a hundred times more. In other words, if his friend is number one, and the zero follows it, it is considered that one receives from his friend ten (10) times more. And if he says that he is double zero compared to his friend, he receives from his friend a hundred (100) times more.
However, if it is to the contrary, and he says that his friend is zero and he is one, then he is ten times less than his friend 0.1. And if he can say that he is one and he has two friends who are both zeros compared to him, then he is considered a hundred times less than them, meaning he is 0.01. Thus, his degree lessens according to the number of zeros he has from his friends.
Yet, even once he acquires that strength and can keep the love of others in actual fact, and feels his own gratification as bad for him, still, do not believe in yourself. There must be fear of falling into self-love in the middle of the work. In other words, should one be given a greater pleasure than he is used to receiving, although he can already work in order to bestow with small pleasures and is willing to relinquish them, he lives in fear of great pleasures.
This is called “fear,” and this is the gate to receive the Light of faith, called “The inspiration of the Shechina [Divinity],” as it is written in The Sulam Commentary, “By the measure of fear is the measure of faith.”
Hence, we must remember that the matter of “Love thy friend as thyself” should be kept because it is a Mitzva, since the Creator commanded to engage in love of friends. And Rabbi Akiva only interprets this Mitzva that the Creator commanded. He intended to make this Mitzva into a rule by which to be able to keep all the Mitzvot because of the commandment of the Creator, and not because of self-benefit.
In other words, it is not that the Mitzvot should expand our will to receive, meaning that by keeping the Mitzvot we would be generously rewarded. Quite the contrary; by keeping the Mitzvot we will reach the reward of being able to annul our self-love and achieve the love of others, and subsequently the love of God.
Now we can understand what our sages said about the verse, VeSamtem [Place them]. It comes from the word, Sam [“potion,” as well as “placing”]. “If granted, it is a potion of life; if not granted, it is a potion of death.”
Not granted means that one engages in Torah and Mitzvot to multiply self-love, so the body would acquire possessions in return for its work. If granted, one’s self-love is nullified and he aims to receive a reward that is the strength for love of others. By this he will reach the love of the Creator that his only wish will be to give contentment to the Creator.
Reader: And now friends, we're going to move to the lesson with Rav. This is from December 2002.
M. Laitman: (16:38) We heard an article from “Rungs of the Ladder,” Volume 4, from Psalms. The second part of the article is written about Psalms. The name of the article is "According to What Is Explained Concerning 'Love Thy Friend as Thyself,'" meaning that there is love thy friend as thyself and many articles on that. And here, Rabash adds, this is the seventh article, meaning this is one of the first articles. It's from 1984, Article 7. I brought a bunch of people, a group from Tel Aviv, the first group of students. I gave a few lectures there, and I brought people, young men, 20-year-olds, 30-year-olds, mostly bachelors.
So, the articles, the first articles that Rabash wrote are articles about the society on the subject of "love thy friend as thyself." Because there are three stages that a person goes through throughout his track from the beginning of creation through to the end of creation. It's self-love, after that he emerges from this world to the spiritual world through the barrier, and so he acquires love of others, and when he passes above the Parsa, that is the love of God. Self-love, love of others, love of God. It's not possible to reach the purpose of creation, which is the love of God, equivalence of form, correction for the vessels, qualities, a person's desires, without going through these three stages. And sometimes the names don't really work out for us: end of correction, “equivalence of form,” these terms acquiring the NRNHY, the upper NRNHY, and love of the Creator.
These things seem very disparate to us. They speak of completely different topics, different goals, different states. We don't understand that it's the very same thing, that it's actually the same thing. We're not even talking about lights or vessels or states or causes. It's all about that exact position, that station called “the end of correction.”
And Rabash writes that the springboard, the means by which to achieve this, is the group. And it's according to the extent to which a person receives the power to advance from the group, and how much he uses that force towards the group, as only the small can receive from the great. So the more a person diminishes himself towards the society, in relation to the society, seeing himself with many zeros, and after the zero, then one at the end, meaning if he sees himself as the smallest of the society, willing to receive from the society, to be impressed by it, and that suffices for him, it influences him so deeply that it suffices as fuel, it's enough for him to do everything.
So we see that a person is ready to do anything in life, even die, no problem. There are many people who die for various reasons. They decided that it's worthwhile for them, it's the best thing for them to die. Either they have no pleasures, or the opposite, that they have some notion, some ideal that is so great that they see in death some kind of upper mission, or that they can acquire a better state through that, or they can realize some message, some high ideal that they hold. Meaning, there is no problem with the fuel, the problem is with the quickness and the desire.
M. Laitman: (21:57) If a person is impressed by something, meaning you can derive anything from impression, and the problem is how to be impressed, and without an impression from the society, it's like a little child, it's only the way he's impressed by the adults. What can he do? He wants to be like them, right? So as we are inspired, impressed by the society, this is actually all of our work, how to be impressed, to what degree, how small we are in relation to the society, and how the society itself, its ideal, its goal, is correct and exalted, sublime. Meaning, I can make myself small towards the society, but what will the society provide me with? I need to also be concerned with that. Meaning, I also need to be, if so, as great in relation to the society. At the same time, I also need to be great, I need to influence the society with the right goal, meaning that this will be at the helm of the society. Meaning, a person needs to build the society and then to receive from the society that which he builds in it. And when he works in that way, right, barter and trade, back and forth, mutual work with the society, by that he builds himself.
He builds two points in himself, Keter and Malchut. The greater he is towards the society and how small he is towards the society, that is his level, and everything follows the measure of impression in relation to the society. That's it. And after he acquires these two factors, then there's nothing more for him to do. He, as Baal HaSulam writes in the article about free choice, he's already in the hands of the society, he has no more free choice; and after he decided where he will be, after having decided that he is going to be impressed by the society, to be under its influence, that's it.
He has no more free choice, he has decided, and this will determine the rest of his future. Now if so, why do you also need to love others, to love the society, "love thy friend as thyself?” It should be enough for us to influence them, to receive from them, meaning I look at them as a means, a vessel, a tool by which I reach the Creator. And I use them with this kind of technique, a system through which I need to magnify the good things in me, reduce the bad things in me, orient myself towards the proper goal, to increase the proper desires, and that's it. Very businesslike. Why do I need to love them? That's the question.
It is said that "love thy friend as thyself," is in fact the key with which I open the door to the Creator, to the Creator's hall, if I have acquired love of others. And it's not enough for me to treat the society, to relate to the society as though I'm small amongst the great ones. Rather, I need to relate to them as people whom I love. Why? It's a simple matter. The Creator... we should paint this picture before our eyes, our mind's eye. The Creator relates to me with love to the extent that I'm in a crowd, and I love that crowd. Meaning, I'm in a group, and that group is in front of the Creator, and the Creator loves me to the extent that I love the group when we are together, because He does not relate to individuals apart. He relates to everyone together, collectively.
M. Laitman: (26:53) If I acquire love for everyone, it means that I acquire everyone. They're all mine, parts of my body and soul, and by that, I acquire the Creator's relation to man, to creation, to Adam HaRishon. If I don't love the others, if I don't connect with them, then I don't acquire the Creator's attitude towards creation, and then I feel… not that He doesn't relate to creation, rather I feel the way He relates to creation in an opposite way.
That helps me recognize the bad state I’m in as evil, and to change it. Meaning, it's best for us to always see ourselves in a group, in the nation, within humanity, as Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon writes, that you need to reach "love thy friend as thyself" towards the entire world, yes, and then the Creator is revealed to me to the extent that I am connected in a connection of love to His created beings. Because everything goes according to equivalence of form, and His relation to creation is that of the Good Who Does Good, or love. So, my attitude towards creation has to be the same. It follows that we should not expect the Creator to relate to each one individually without taking into account my position in the society. That's it.
And these spiritual laws are absolute and unchanging. There is no sudden change on behalf of the Creator due to our cries or prayers as some might think, or some kind of protection, preferential treatment. Rather, there's a law that is never violated. I, HaVaYaH, did not change. The person adjusts himself to work, to keep these laws, and accordingly, he enjoys them. If he's opposite to them, he suffers because of them. That's it. It's completely deterministic. All of our requests and prayers, our shouts, our cries, that's all about our preparation of the vessel, our attitude towards the Creator. By that, we build ourselves, so to speak, change ourselves. But the Creator hears us and relates to us exactly in accordance to degrees and conditions which were set in advance, and there is never any sudden change due to some, as we might think, mercy. Everything follows very clear, precise, and absolute laws.
And so, we should stop looking for various patents for how to circumvent the situation. Instead, we need to know it exactly and how to overcome it in the way that nature determines. The Creator is the general law of nature, and as Baal HaSulam writes there in the letters from the nations of the world, He never gave up on a single gram of exertion.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:42) How do I act correctly toward the society to give it greatness? And on the other hand, how do I also correctly receive the greatness of the goal? In other words, what is the correct annulment? How is it done?
M. Laitman: This mutual way in which a person needs to relate to the society, it's always... It exists in our world also between two people. When you love someone, you want to receive from him his form of love as well. And according to love you invest, and accordingly you are impressed. It's simply a measure of connection. Connection cannot be one way, it has to be bidirectional. So, with the society, the connection, it's all about how we arrange this connection with respect to what discernments. But it has to be mutual. It has to be mandatory, that is.
So, the discernments towards the society, in the connection with me I need to bestow upon the society as much as possible with upliftment, the goal, and everything that I see as being high, as the right thing rather, and to receive. But after this is absorbed into the society, after I decided that this is the society, then I need to really lower my head and receive everything from the society.
Student: What does it mean to lower my head?
M. Laitman: To lower my head towards the ideal that exists in the society- it's goal. If I chose the society, after having chosen it needs to be a true choice. I choose for myself, in choosing the society. I choose for myself my thoughts, my desires, my status, who I will be tomorrow. That's also how we relate to this world, right? Who are you? You are like your friends. Who is the person? Go see the society he is in. Yes, whatever friends you have as a child, that's how you will grow as an adult, even if you later part from these friends. That's all. It's a matter of education.
Student: Now when there are arguments between friends?
M. Laitman: It all follows the laws of nature. There are no hidden things here above reason. It's simply, that's how it works through the entire depth of creation.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:50) When there are arguments between friends, how can we examine the goal?
M. Laitman: The goal, we examine according to what our teachers write to us, and not according to what the friends or what you think. There are precise definitions here, as precise as possible, and whatever they write we need to go over that again and again and set it as our goal. That's it.
Student: But a friend says, do it this way, and it'll give you the best result for the goal. And another says, do the opposite, exactly the opposite of what he says, and that'll give you the best result for the goal.
M. Laitman: I don't, I have nothing to say about what you're asking. I don't even understand what you're asking. The society has clear goals to connect in a mutual way, mutual sense to show the love. Each one shows the other love, the recognition of the Creator's importance, the importance of the goal, of the corrections, of the society, of the friends, and the person has to think about that and be in it. A person is where his thoughts are, so we need to engage in that and not something outside of that. That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:18) That's understood, but I mean something like when let's say, we are organizing some introductory lecture and one says, do it this way, and another says to do it the other way.
M. Laitman: I don't understand. If I want to submit myself towards the society, then I come to the society and whatever my friends tell me on the path, in the middle, whatever it might be, I try to listen. In that, I perform exercises through which I'm small towards the great ones. They tell me, do this, do that, do this, and so I, when I'm small and I make myself small deliberately, by force, through exertion by that, I hope for their good thoughts, their recognition of the goal and everything, all the best things in them. The very best things will simply flow into me, like from a high place to a lower place. So for that, I have to lower my head before them. They tell me to go clean, I go clean, work in the kitchen, I do that or do this. It's very good that I have people above me telling me what to do in the society. This helps me, yes? This helps me later on receive the very best things from the society. What am I here for, actually? It's only for that.
So, the more opportunities a person has to be inferior in the society, that's to his benefit so to speak, and it's a great curse, it might be to a person if he's given some place to stand out, right, that spoils him. It doesn't allow him to be small towards the society. So, it's only for people who are really corrected, that this opportunity is given to be managers in the society, so it doesn't spoil them, so it will allow them to advance. But if a person is not yet corrected, and is not really defending himself against pride and all these things, then it's a real problem. The role, his duty won't allow him to feel small towards the society, it won't allow him to receive the message, the goal, and then he'll be just some manager, like in a factory, and will not advance in spirituality. And that is a problem.
Many things are written about this. Also, in the public, with respect to the Rabbis and everyone, there are actual rules, where, let's say, if something… You have something in the public, where, let's say, you have to, there is no alternative, you have to violate the Shabbat. So you invite the greatest people to perform whatever action there is, because they have screens, and so even if they violate the Shabbat, it won't harm them. Various such laws exist.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:44) And what if a friend does something now? What do I do if I see this very annulment causes the friend to look down on me? That happens too.
M. Laitman: I don't follow.
Student: This annulment, when a person lowers himself and they keep telling me, do this, do that, all right, he does it. And then the friends see this and they say, look, they look down on him because of it.
M. Laitman: The friends disrespect me?
Student: Yes.
M. Laitman: That might be a good thing. It gives me the ability to truly submit myself and not think that I'm just acting. Right? You understood?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:25) I have a question regarding that in which a person must also be small and also needs to be, as it were, great in relation to a friend, both at the same time. Now the question is, I always have some additional work with a friend according to some role, right? How do I express my opinion, which is sometimes contrary to his opinion, and at the same time be small and also great? How does that work together?
M. Laitman: So you're asking the following. In our business here, here inside, we built it as such, we have relationships between us as friends in the society, and also there are different ways we relate to each other here in the enterprise, in the factory. I relate to my friend as small or I relate to him as great. In relation to what? Is it connected to our duties in the factory, in dissemination, or not?
I need to relate to everyone as great, in that I want to give them upliftment, inspiration from our goal. And I want to be small towards them in order to receive from them, in general upliftment and inspiration towards our goal. And this is not connected to our duties, seemingly at least. Our duties also help us. In terms of my duty, I can be great, my position here, and I might also be small. Meaning, even without these positions in the enterprise, we can build a system of relationships where I'm towards the society both small and great. This is through knowledge, through surrender, bestowal and reception. In bestowal, I'm greater than the society as much as possible, and in reception, I'm the smallest in the society, with no connection to the factory. The factory helps us have something to build a foundation on, some flesh, some meat, a foundation- something on which to build our relationships.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:04) What to do if there is a state where sometimes the person sees that he's receiving too much respect from the society, and he's afraid that it will damage him?
M. Laitman: A person who receives respect from the society is afraid that it will harm him? That fear itself already protects the person. Besides, among us this is very, very rare. And even when I give someone honor, I try to spoil it immediately. You see, I usually shout. Let's say, I give a friend some work to do. As if singling him out from the rest of the society as someone important to me. Yes, but then my attitude towards him becomes very short.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:19) What is the love of the society? Is love towards the whole of the society as good as having a good goal? Or is it love towards one friend? There's a problem here, if you relate to everyone the same thing.
M. Laitman: There are people whom I feel more, and it is also easier for me to both bestow upon them and to receive from them. They are more similar to me, yes? Take this friend, for example. Yes, that's clear. It really is simply like that. There're people whom I can barely grasp. I don't understand them, to me, they are some kind of blank spot, I can't decipher who they are. There are such people. You're not being told that you have to break yourself or break someone else in the society in order to really penetrate into them. No. Instead, we should not simply make distinctions based on corporeal qualities. All right? Nevertheless, among the entire collective, among those who are here, you should identify the people with whom you have a common language, people with whom you can definitely feel that you are ready to connect. You should proceed from easy to difficult in matters of love and in matters of bestowal and reception, from easy to difficult. We learn that all corrections take place this way.
So for now, I need to choose 10 or 15 people from the society and try to establish this kind of connection with them. But this does not mean that I discard the others. I understand that because of my weakness, I am still incapable of... because the goal's the entire world. If I limit myself and say, that's it, let the rest be lost, what do I care? Yes? Then by doing so, I also erase the next concept that the Creator speaks about. You understand? So for me, it becomes corporeal love, according to what is convenient for me and not according to what the Creator dictates, that I need to come out of myself. Love of others, means that I need to come out of myself. To come out of myself, I merely practice with those people who are closer to me in spirit. But afterward, where I truly come out of myself, it's with the people who I don't feel so much. I really have to come out of myself in order to connect with them. You understand?
In other words, just shouting to this friend is not a good state. Saying, he's my friend, he's my friend, that's fine for a week or two. Afterward, it indicates that you're lagging. I'm serious, that you're lagging behind in the work. Why don't you also shout at another friend, for example? What, he isn't a human being? I'm serious. If someone is incapable, does not want to, turns away from you, simply says, I don't want to see your nose and your glasses, then nothing can be done about it. For now, it's impossible. Neither he nor you are capable of it. Work with other people, prepare yourselves, and then suddenly you'll see that it's worthwhile for me to try specifically with such people with whom my nature does not agree. And I want to break my nature, to go outside of nature. That's called love of others. Others, means someone other than me, outside of me.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:33) These relationships, love of friends, it all clothes on this, this pattern called the factory. On the one hand, if I give someone a job, if he doesn't do it, I need to hang him.
M. Laitman: The factory has nothing to do with love of friends, don't confuse the two. A factory is a factory. By factory I mean business relationships between all the friends. They are not friends there, but workers, business relationships alone. Because we have one great goal, and this goal is very important to us, the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Through it, we reach correction, the Creator, all kinds of things. Without any love of friends, nothing at all. To bring spirituality into this and spirituality means the connection between us, a connection between us that is emotional we need to insert this into our business relationship. That's all. And then the factory will function without any problem. Start bringing all kinds of feelings into it, and everything will collapse. No, not after work. All the other kinds of relationships must be above this, as though they are disconnected from it, as little as possible. You are not yet corrected enough to do all these things together. You are not corrected enough.
I come here, I know that you know what, this is a framework that lets you advance at a certain pace to keep your life within us within a framework in which you live towards spirituality. It doesn't give you any great acceleration. But this framework is truly a still level of holiness, a still level of Kedusha, holy still framework. You work for the sake of dissemination, you study in order to attain, and everything else, but you don't really bring mutual feelings between the friends into it. They are the main thing. But if you bring them into it, it'll shatter. The whole factory will depend only on what happens, will depend on the relationships between the friends, and then certainly it'll fall apart.
However, in the course of correction, and let us hope that you will correct yourselves, that you'll be able to come out of one another, each one out of themselves, so that there will truly be love of others. To the extent that there is love of others, you will feel no difference between business relationships and emotional relationships, relationships that are aimed at the goal, and so on. But now, no. Now we establish that because we want to advance toward the goal, so we must perform corporeal actions. And in these corporeal actions, we bring no emotion, but only intellect. Emotion is aimed at the goal, at the Creator, but not at each one, at each other, toward the other. And then we do not, and then this does not interfere with our work, and we can plan our course of action, everything. Ask.
Be very, very careful with bringing relationships between the friends into the factory. The factory, for example a religious society. Why does it continue to exist? Because nothing changes. It's forbidden to change anything. There's some new fashion, and they say, we'll wait 30 years. What's the matter? What happened? Do we need to make some change? We'll wait. Why wait? Because when you make some change, you will feel its consequences even 30 years later, and who knows what will happen, what the result will be. So the more things are preserved without change, the more stable they will certainly be, and the more certain they are to continue existing. Just as it exists now, because it does not change, so it will exist today, and it will also exist in ten years. At least it will continue to exist as it is, you understand?
M. Laitman: (53:20) A person who's suffering and begins to feel suffering says, at least let things stay as they are. You know, I have a piece of bread and water. I don't want anything else, just give me that. In other words, at least I can be certain of having that. So we need to preserve ourselves such that at least this framework will certainly continue to exist, and for that it needs to exist without any emotion. Speak with religious people. Do they have any emotion in their observance of the Torah, commandment studies, and so on? What are you talking about? It's an obligation. The Lord commanded, and I do it. That's all. That's why they continue to exist. Yes. And you come to them and ask, “Where is the love of friends? Where are you? What's the purpose of life?” What do they tell you? My friend, leave us alone. And they're correct. Otherwise, who knows what would have happened to them over thousands of years? So we need the same thing. First of all, a framework.
Student: And you shouldn't justify anyone inwardly? Externally, right, I behave with him the way I need. But internally, I shouldn't justify?
M. Laitman: Above this framework, if you are certain that you can rise above it without interfering with it, that it will not disrupt anything at all, then start establishing your relationships with the society, your relationship toward them and theirs toward you. Please, go ahead. But when you work in your department and you say, look, doesn't this confuse you? Doesn't it cause you to start doing some kind of… For instance, you suddenly forgive a friend who made some mistake at work, you already begin to relate to him as he's weak, what can he do today? Those are no longer business relationships.
Are you damaging the business relationships? If you are, then you're damaging the framework. Tomorrow you'll have no relationship with the Creator, with spirituality. You'll fall and this framework will no longer exist. And then nothing will come of it. This way at least, the business relationships, the framework of the factory are preserved and gradually they bring you to a connection with others. We must not let emotions operate between us in matters concerning the factory. I can shout, I can do whatever. I don't know what, regarding the work there in book publishing or something else, that's one thing. And something entirely different is my attitude toward that very friend or that student who does the work, who is advancing.
Student: At least we need to keep our framework, from that we start the factory.
M. Laitman: This is where we begin. We begin with the factory and we make sure that it does not change. What does it mean that it should not change? That it should not be subject to our emotions.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:36) You said that when crossing the barrier, we acquire the love of others and only above the Parsa we acquire the love of God. We're always saying that it's the same thing. Because…
M. Laitman: Your question is how we move from self-love to love of others, and afterwards to love of the Creator. Well, from self-love to love of others, it's clear that at the barrier we begin to build love of others. Love of others is the correction of creation, to bestow in order to bestow, when I still do not feel the Creator within me, let's put it that way. The feeling of the Creator within me is only in the state where I receive in order to bestow. So the flavors, the Ta'amim, the inner light that fills my soul, my vessel, is actually the measure of my adhesion with the Creator, the mutual feeling between us, the extent of love in which one fills the other when we are together in one coupling. That happens only in the vessels of reception, in receiving in order to bestow.
In bestowing in order to bestow, I acquire only the measure of Hesed, of mercy, how I emerge from self-love to Bina, to Hafetz Hesed, delighting in mercy. And this is still something relatively cold. That is only the beginning of the path, that is from Bina, from Malchut, receiving for myself, so to speak. And I say “so to speak” because this is a schematic representation, from Malchut to Bina, bestowing in order to bestow, and to the Creator, to Keter, receiving in order to bestow.
How is that expressed along our path? We have concealments, that is double concealment and normal concealment, that is called for oneself, Lo Lishma. Afterward, we cross the barrier into a state called Lishma. But for the time being, it is reward and punishment, right, where everything turns into unintentional transgressions. Intentional transgressions turn into unintentional transgressions, and unintentional transgressions turn into merits. Afterward, we move from reward and punishment to eternal love, that is from bestowing in order to bestow, to receiving in order to bestow, to love of the Creator.
Then all intentional and unintentional transgressions become merits. Meaning they all become corrected vessels. What does it mean that they become unintentional and intentional transgressions? They become vessels in which the mutual love between us and the Creator becomes revealed.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:59) When a person reaches love of God, receiving in order to bestow above the Parsa, what happens with love of others?
M. Laitman: I didn't hear.
Student: When a person reaches the degree of the love of God, receiving in order to bestow, what happens to love of others?
M. Laitman: When a person begins to reveal love of the Creator after love of others, then all the previous degrees rise to that same degree of attaining love of the Creator and connect together. As Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon says, love of the world. The whole world needs to be included in this, because it is in the collective vessel of the whole world that you attain eternal love. So, there is no difference. The whole world becomes your vessel. You acquire the whole vessel of Adam HaRishon.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:09) As you said, it's Rabbi Shimon and his son Rabbi Elazar saying. We're all a big group, it's not just Bnei Baruch, we're all traveling on the same road towards the Creator. Is there an explanation why we're not uniting in such a difficult time?
M. Laitman: You see, soon there'll be a war. We're already beginning to feel a somewhat different attitude. During wartime, although lately even that does not have such a strong effect. I remember once, right, there were things like, for example you'd leave a soldier stranded along the road hitchhiking? What do you mean? You give him a ride, you go and fight, yes? It's a corporeal thing. But look how it works. As though afterward people take pride in it, as if they're practicing love of others. In short, we do not see to what extent all of this is based on the intention to receive. But when people are suffering, they are ready to connect. There are several aspects to this. First of all, a large vessel can truly bring about a change of state. Right? The prayer is stronger. Greater suffering brings recognition of evil faster. And we have things in common. We are all suffering, and for the same reason.
In other words, the revelation of the suffering of the public is a correction that helps the public connect and unite. Because there is no choice. After our failures, our accumulated laziness, when we do not do what's necessary, those same laws that constitute corporeal and spiritual nature, those same laws actually begin to manifest toward us as the suffering of the society, of the public. And through this, we seek correction by being together. Each person concedes their ego. Why? Because I feel suffering in my ego, so it's easy for me to concede my ego. That is all. Now, when the troubles pass, and I begin to feel good things in my ego, how can I connect with others and share with them? On the contrary, everyone again begins to withdraw into themselves. And there is no correction for this unless the Creator Himself reveals Himself to us from above so that we will look at Him and not within ourselves.
Solely in that way is it possible. As it is written about the exodus from Egypt, the Creator in His own glory and by Himself was revealed to them, and so on. It cannot be otherwise.
Student: So should we wait?
M. Laitman: It's not that we need to wait. Rather, if we wait, that's the path of suffering, and then the suffering will only intensify. Instead, we need to act.
Student: Throughout these two years, we received such punishments. We didn't connect. Each one sat in his own corner, and this time the situation is...
M. Laitman: The situation as it was, as it is now, certainly has never existed before, and this is how it should be. We are constantly advancing toward the end of correction. People who do not understand that the world is advancing toward something constantly cry out,”Why is this situation changing? Why wasn't it like this before, and now it is?” This is simply a lack of understanding that this is indeed how things should be. I expect every state to be different, to lead to corrections through the good path; not through the bad path, but it will certainly change each time. Until we ourselves come to accelerate the recognition of evil, nothing will happen. Why do I need to be in sorrows in order to begin connecting with others? Well, we'll see. All these wars, all these situations, exist only for that purpose. What does Baal HaSulam write? That there could be more world wars, a third, and a fourth world war, with hydrogen bombs, and then only a small handful of people would remain. There would be such souls that would include all the souls together. These might be, let's say, a few million people or even a few thousand, and they'd live in some way, even in caves. What difference does it make how they live corporeally? But internally, they would already be more prepared for correction, and they would then carry out a general correction for all the souls. That's all.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:05) There are certain states where it's bad, there's this tendency to draw apart. Sometimes there are states where it's actually, there's a tendency to...
M. Laitman: I didn't understand.
Student: Sometimes there are states in life when things are bad, and there's this tendency to move apart. And when it's good, sometimes there is a tendency to come together.
M. Laitman: There is evil that distances a person, and there’s evil that advances a person, yes? That's what you want to say. So, the Creator uses... there are such things with good as well. It depends on what the evil or the good dresses into. If the good dresses in the society, then I run toward the society. If the good is dressed in something outside, so I run toward the outside. The same is true of evil. It depends on where the evil is and where… whether it's in the society or outside. If things are bad for me outside, I run here. You see, there are people who come here in the evening to sit here. Why? Things are bad for them at home. What do they need? A wife, children on their heads, well, they cannot simply be free and pass the time pleasantly at home. Here somehow they can, you see?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:29) Between here and there, it's not the most, it's not the most related to what we read about, what we talked about?
M. Laitman: Well, well, go on.
Student: Why is it, then, when we talk about the light, we always say the light of the Creator, the light of Hochma, the light of Hassadim, right? Why are we talking about light? Why is it the same term? Why light? Why not something different? Why is it that, specifically?
M. Laitman: I don't know what you mean. Why do we speak about, where we use the word light? He says that it's similar to sunlight, to light in life, to the light of thought, of a flash of insight, to something good. Certainly, there is no connection between our light and spiritual light.
Question (Internet): (01:09:52) The person and the group constantly change. This means that we need to constantly build Keter and Malchut, my relationship to the group and the group's relationship to me, to constantly build them. In other words, we need to really be engaged in continuous, renewed construction each time anew.
M. Laitman: That's correct. The answer is that this is indeed so. A person needs to do this all the time.
Question (Internet): (01:10:31) What analogy is there in this world in changing the desires between the friends in the group? Like to say, tanks that are connected between them, so the level of the water becomes even. Or it's like two spaces with energies between them, or pressures, things like that.
M. Laitman: It's true. It's on the degrees of still, vegetative, animate and speaking, on every degree, every level, it's true. Nothing you can do here. It's also like, usually every field, every force, every influence depends on the square of the distance. Square distance. I have light here and two meters away, what will be the light? The light will not change as a linear function. It will change as a function times two to the power of two. It means that it's the influence of the distance. In spirituality, it's much more so. In spirituality, there's a different formula. The influence of the distance on a phenomenon is very big in spirituality. In corporeality, it's not in corporeality. In physics, on the still, it is to the power of two. And in plants and in animals, it is more so. And in man and in desires, in equivalence of form, meaning the distance, the remoteness between thoughts and the inequality between thoughts as a result of the distance, or the result of the distance, is very big. There are many things in it that I can't just throw some formula.
Question (Internet): (01:13:08) When I get from the group or when I want to receive from the group, do I by this increase my egoism?
M. Laitman: It's not clear. Did anyone say it's bad if my ego is bigger? The question is, with respect to what does my ego grow? It's written, the level of our desire, the hardness toward the right goal is what opens the barrier for us. So, on the contrary, let me receive from the society a very powerful desire toward the Creator and enjoy it and connect with Him. In this, let my ego grow without any boundaries. Let’s study.
Reader: Now, friends, we will summarize our impressions from the lesson, and what from it we are taking to implement in the Ten. Six minutes workshop, please.
Reader: We'll move to the next part of the lesson, but first we'll sing a song together.
Song: (01:20:25)