The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: October 6, 2026
Part 1: Sitrin Convention, Sukkot 2003 - Lesson 16
Reader: Hello! In the first part of the lesson, we're going to study the last lesson from this series of lessons of Rav from the Sitrin Congress, Lesson Number 16 from October 17, 2003.
M. Laitman: (00:18) So, we're continuing with you to study the article, Matan Torah and, The Arvut, Item 12, Item 11 – let's start from Item 11. Reality is built out of layers, we don't know what is the topmost layer called, Atzmuto – His Self – what is above it and what it is, in and of itself. Kabbalists who attain reality and ascend to its topmost layer, topmost degree. They say that this is the thought of benefiting His creations, that only the thought exists. It is singular, the only one that operates, that exists, and it is reality, and they call this thought, The thought of creation, and they also call it, The Creator. They study and they teach us that this thought, out of the fact that it, in itself, is to benefit His creations, it starts to actualize itself. To actualize itself, means that it starts to create the created beings, to be materialized. This is how it descends from its pure level, which is only a thought, stage after stage, as it builds a reality that is more and more corporeal. This is what we call, The descent of the degrees of the Partzufim – the Olamot and the Sefirot. Until we find ourselves on the lowest degree, this is what the Kabbalists explain to us, that there is none lower than that. Our goal, we are obligated through this thought, to reach the highest degree where it exists in its clean, pure form. The entire method is about how to rise on the levels of this thought from our state, where we do not feel it at all, to becoming more sensitive to it. To feeling that it is working and operating us on all of our levels. On a level where we're not aware of it, then we can think about it a little bit. Perhaps we can feel it a little bit until we certainly begin to somehow depict it. Perhaps we can make some efforts to be incorporated in it, and to live our life together with it – with the thought of Doing Good to His Creations. To feel it as some kind of a field that is simply passing through us and operating in our whole world. Up to the higher degrees, where we can already enter this thought through our efforts and unite with it, connect with it in spite of the disruptions. So, that these disruptions are actually in order for us to find a way to connect more correctly; that, we will find a shorter direction through which to connect. Then, it turns out, that our work is called, The attainment of the adhesion with that thought. Approaching it or attaining the adhesion comes according to the equivalence of form, according to how much we will make ourselves similar to that thought because the thought of creation shaped us according to its qualities.
M. Laitman: (06:10) It turns out that everything that is in it, that is, to feel the thought of creation, to feel that thought is some kind of an animal inside of which all of the worlds exist. So, to feel it gives us good and delight, pleasure, rest, tranquility, the feeling of wholeness, a feeling of being unlimited and eternal. To the opposite, what is outside this thought of creation that comes and is added to it as murkiness, as some kind of a gray addition or black, up to actual darkness in our lowest degree. What comes as a clothing over it, which is called, Its concealment. This is felt in us as suffering, impatience, as all kinds of unpleasant sensations. And that thought, it operates on us in a gradual manner, it always reveals to us more and more the gap, the difference between us and it, which is felt in us as suffering of various kinds that intensify. So that eventually, we will have no choice but to search, even without awareness and later on in a directed manner, for how to escape the suffering. Later on, when we will get to know this thought, then it will be not even in order to run away from the suffering but in order to unite with it. That it is good, we will want to get closer to it, and also, a stage will come when we will want to unite with it – not because it feels good for us but because this is something which is higher, exalted, perfect. Not because it evokes within us good feelings, but because this is how it is. For the time being, we have no other answer. We have no other vessels with which to appreciate something that is good besides tasty, sweet, and something bad besides bitter, suffering. An additional sense will come to us, which is called true and false. Where everything that pertains to this highest thought will be felt in us as the truth, and the opposite of it as false. Where these discernments do not depend on our will to receive, on our body, but we will want to exist precisely according to them.
M. Laitman: (10:16) Then we will certainly begin to work according to this sensation of true and false and not according to bitter and sweet. This new discernment will be called, Our existence in the upper worlds. Where we are already operated through a system of consciousness, a control system, a different operating system. Not taking into consideration what is inside of us, what is for us, but taking into consideration to what extent we can become incorporated in that thought. This will become our life, that is, we replace the source of our life, we completely replace the concept of the discernment of what life is. Not feeling the will to receive but, to be, to exist inside this thought of creation, to be together with it, like it. Without any distinction of ourselves, within ourselves, our independent existence, this is what Kabbalists tell us. That this is the reality and the goal and the process that we have to go through, whether we want to or not, whether we know it or not, we're incorporated in it, we exist in it.
The method for how to do this work, which is upon us, in the shortest possible way, the work is to reach adhesion. Shortest, means the person will not waste any moment of his life, and not even the smallest effort with his forces. But only in the shortest and most beneficial manner to reach, he'll reach the purpose of his life, the reason for which he exists. The method that enables us to do that is called, The method of Kabbalah, to accept the thought of creation as a force that works on us completely. Everything that we learn and the actions that we perform according to the recommendation of the Kabbalists, according to their advice. All of this is included in the work; that is, the effort that a person must perform on all of his levels, emotionally, mentally. In particular, all of our efforts are divided into the brain and the heart, an effort to feel and an effort to understand. To understand also doesn't mean to understand that data but rather, those data elements that come from the feeling. These elements are then called, The recognition of evil – when we feel that in the heart and in our brain, we understand why, we recognize the source of the evil.
M. Laitman: (14:58) If we operate correctly our inner system – in the brain and in the heart, to diagnose what is the true evil – then it gives us the correct and shortest direction in every moment of our life. To advance towards the purpose of creation, towards adhesion in that thought of creation. Because it's very difficult for a person to orient himself in this world ,correctly directed towards the hidden thought of creation. They shaped for us from above a system that can give us the correct indication, the correct discernment and short direction towards that purpose of creation. In every state that we may be in, in every spirit or mood and inner state, and in all of the external states, that we will know for certain if we're walking correctly or not, and to what extent we may be deviating from the path. If we're investing all of our forces or maybe only a quarter or a half, and this diagnosis will be correct, true, measurable. This diagnosis, it won't be only us who will monitor it, but I can also receive such a response and monitoring from the outside.
This system that is directing us – me, you and you and you – towards the goal is a system called, The group. The purpose and insight of the group is like a ship in the ocean that truly doesn't know where it is and which way it should advance. Our state is even more desperate, more confusing, more difficult. Because we cannot see the goal, we cannot see the way towards it. We don't know which of our forces are good or bad, in which form, in which context or manner we can activate them, nothing. Out of all of our qualities and discernments and abilities, we have no system to operate them correctly. Like in a machine, to use each and every power in the context and to the measure so that all in all, all of them together will take our ship of each and every one of us in the right direction and in the optimal manner. The system that we can assemble around us, the group, it is like – I would say – it's some kind of an infrastructure, a platform, a foundation which turns my ship in the right direction. It exists under this ship, like some kind of an infrastructure, a basis. It takes my ship, which rests on it, it takes my ship to the right direction. That is, the group is truly like a compass and an engine, so that if I am inside the group, then for certain, this compass is directing me and this engine is operating me in the correct and most optimal form towards the goal.
M. Laitman: (20:09) We learned that from Baal HaSulam's, Free Choice, article. How do I organize around me or beneath me this infrastructure that will take me like on a flying carpet, right, to the right direction. I don't know it, I'm not aware of it. This system called the group will operate my forces in the right form, it will use me properly. And it's not that I operate myself, but rather it will operate me – what do I know about myself? They say that I have to make only one effort with myself to give myself to the group, and if I do that, then I'm already guaranteed that I am in the right direction. And to the extent that in the group there are other people like myself, the response that will come to us will operate us as an engine, with speed, with the right power each time towards the right goal.
This is what we're now learning in the most important articles in the wisdom of Kabbalah, which are called, Matan Torah, [The Giving of the Torah], and Arvut, [Mutual Guarantee]. The Giving of the Torah, this article explains to us for what purpose we were given the method of correction: what do we have to correct, what for? And The Arvut, this article explains to us, also together with the first article, The Giving of the Torah. It explains to us that without an external system in which I become incorporated through my effort as an inseparable part, where there is no, I, but rather there is, we. That if I build such a system, precisely through this system, I receive the method of correction and not beforehand, this method of correction is called, Screen and reflected light. If we will build the system of Arvut, where each one will be a guarantor for the others in the group, we will receive from above the reforming light, also called, The upper light, the light of AB-SAG, the light of Torah. Then certainly we will be rewarded with studying and actualizing, implementing the wisdom of Kabbalah on ourselves.
Until then, until we build this system of the group, our framework, we have no possibility to even approach the wisdom of Kabbalah the way it is, in and of itself; to sail in the right direction. But rather in the meantime, we are engaging in building our collective ship or the self-flying carpet. That until each and every one of us will give himself to the collective society, to such an extent that we will feel that it is capable of providing each and every one complete confidence that he will lack nothing, that he is in trustworthy hands. Without thinking of himself, he can think only about how to be incorporated, how to adhere to the thought of creation. Until we will build this system, we are still in the time of preparation. All of our forces have to be only according to what Baal HaSulam advises us in this article of, The Giving of the Torah.
M. Laitman: (25:29) What does it mean to give himself to the group – he writes about that in, The Arvut article. We are built of a will to receive, this is the murkiness in which the thought of creation is clothing; and this will to receive must receive a filling in any state it is. The filling for the will to receive so that we can step on it, be above it, and be incorporated in the thought of creation as though it does not exist comes to us through this condition which is called Arvut, mutual guarantee. Where, if a person is certain, a person, meaning that same will to receive for the time being, if he is certain that he will lack nothing. That he can not think about himself and that this will always be so, then he can leave the will to receive. The will to receive then allows him to be above him, not to care for himself, then he can truly engage in incorporation inside of the group, in love of others, in caring only for others. Until the will to receive will be filled, covered with some kind of light that corrects it, that fills it, which is called, in the upper worlds, it is called the force of Bina, the light of Hassadim, that comes to the vessel and gives the vessel a correction called, Chafetz Chesed [delighted in mercy]. Where simply then the vessel has no desire for any additional filling. Then from that degree onward, it is possible to engage in bestowal to others, which we call receive in order to bestow towards the Creator, or towards others also, in active bestowal from me outwardly.
This condition that we will be able to engage in that is called Arvut; and this Arvut, it is, let's say, a force, it's a psychological force. And Baal HaSulam truly calls it that, that each and every one who receives this confidence feels himself completely liberated of his will to receive. Then Baal HaSulam explains that we actually search for that our whole life. We want what is called a guarantee for the future. Guarantees that I will lack nothing for the old age, for some time of an illness or weakness, for whatever troubles may come to me, God forbid, or whatnot. I'm always concerned about the next moment because I already exist in the present moment, I have no reason to care from now about the present moment. If I'm concerned, it means that I'm doing some work for the next moment but the feeling will come, the payment, the result. If in the present moment I'm satisfied so that my will to receive truly doesn't feel any lack and my will to receive is not pushing me towards anything. Then in such a way I can be incorporated in the thought of creation, the group must provide us such a feeling.
Now, you may ask, but who is in the group? A few beggars like me, what do they have? At least if they were wealthy people with power, with political or government power or something, right? What do they have, who are they, what are they? Just like me. It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, what is important to a person is his inspiration from his small society. Of course, In the multitude of people is the king's glory; but truly on the intensity, the power of the society, its inner power depends on the person's inspiration. About these guarantees that he can feel from the environment, he becomes certainly ready for a different kind of work.
M. Laitman: (31:22) Now, you might say, but this is a simple calculation. You actually give a person confidence. Of course, later on he doesn't care and he just goes – what does he care if he already has everything – then he adds spirituality also to himself. No, because to begin with, the goal is different, the direction is different, the reason that I want confidence is different. I am built out of the will to receive, I have no choice, I must get rid of it, this is why I must fill it. If I wouldn't have to fill it, then all the more so, I wouldn't even relate to it, I want to rise above it. Therefore, out of lack of choice, I come to the group with the purpose of rising above the will to receive so that the group will provide me some kind of confidence. A brainwash, an influence in some form, so that my will to receive, that I'll be ashamed of it, that I will not want to use it. That I feel that it is satisfied enough, I filled it with something. And then, all together, through this general inspiration from the group, this is called, the Arvut; I can give myself, throw myself into the group, right? What does it mean to throw myself – not to choose to fall on their hands so that they will take care of me – to pass all of my forces, all of my abilities to the group, towards the advancement, towards our common goal.
Well, there are many other things that I could add, to such an extent that Baal HaSulam says that not even a great Kabbalist like Abraham, nor his sons, where each one of them represented the lines of the Creator's bestowal to all of the souls, right? Right, left, middle, not even Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, that's Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, right, then Moses, Aaron, Joseph, David. So Moshe, Moses is Netzach and Aaron is Hod, they, too, did not receive the Torah. Well, they did receive it but because following them was already Yesod and Malchut – Joseph, Yosef, who was in the beginning, and, oh sorry, he was in the end, and then David. Joseph, who was sold to the Egyptians, he received from there all of the coarseness., and he served as a minister in Egypt. Meaning he learned, he took all of the will to receive that was in Egypt into himself, he collected all of it. This is why he was able to be Yesod, the righteous Yosef, the righteous who is the Yesod, the foundation of the world; David, which is King David, truly Malchut. So, until we come to the group, they needed to be a truly big group. Representatives of all the souls of Adam HaRishon; but, also, in the coarseness that was then, in that the spiritual root that comes to the corporeal branch comes from the most purest point where a person doesn't add his own coarseness, yet.
M. Laitman: (35:40) This comes as a reflection from above downwards, still without any involvement on behalf of the lower ones. But when we come to this, we don't need such a big, broad group, and with the small intensity that was there. But rather we have a much higher, deeper, bigger, and murkier coarseness, and it's enough to be in a small group in order to be impressed by it and work in it. Although, nevertheless, The glory of the King is in the multitude of people; this he explains in the articles, The Giving of the Torah and The Arvut, where the group, nevertheless, will constantly expand. Accordingly, each and every one in it will feel more confidence, more responsibility, more willingness, and a drive to give himself to the group.
I hope that the sufferings that we will feel now in the near period of time, these sufferings will be from a different kind than what we had before. That's the entire difference between degrees, the manner of the sufferings that push a person. Where we will feel in place of these sufferings, I want this upper attainment, I want the upper light, I, I, I. In place of that, I will feel that it's correct. I want this, but I will actually look for it in the group, through my way of relating in the group. This will be the form of our sufferings, then we will certainly reach a mutual guarantee, a mutual Arvut in our global group, which will be big. Today we have 25 countries in our group! That's very important, It's not important that there are countries where there's only a few that are studying, it will expand and grow in every country. This will give us this feeling of confidence and security, not from those people but because we who are operating in all these places, awaken a great surrounding light, a broad light in all its ways, each upon the others. We will be ashamed in what maybe I couldn't add, and both for myself and to give my part to all the efforts that my friends in all the world are doing. When we have such a deficiency, we will feel certainly how our Kli is built for that goal; then certainly what we started today, where we have stabilized ourselves and established and began to build the vessel. So certainly we will feel each the other, we will receive Arvut, and the moment we feel this mutual Arvut in its most minuscule manner. Which enables us to just want to be within this group without any desire for oneself. That's sufficient to cross the barrier, because by that we seemingly are crying out, We shall do and we shall hear.”
Then we will receive the true method of correction, Kabbalah, the Torah, and then in the light of the Creator, we will go, already; also through the Sinai desert, where the desire to receive will grow and constantly increase itself and overcome and give us disturbances. But these disturbances will be inside the unification of the group, within this being of one nation, the Creator's nation, as we call it.
M. Laitman: (40:36) We will reach the land of Zion through these exits we have each time when it's added, more and more desire to receive. The desire to receive grows to the extent in which we move from one layer to another of the thought of creation that is revealed more and more. And it's revealed by the desire to receive being added, and we are refining it, making it more refined. So in the part of the desire to receive that was added as coarse, we refine it, it becomes pure, and then a greater light and greater light is revealed. Until we reach through these exits and entrances to the land of Zion and to the Mount Zion, meaning, after all those contemplations from the exits which we rise upon. We come to Jerusalem, complete fear, whole fear, which is not fear in the desire to receive that something will lack for him. But rather fear in whether I gave everything, 100%, to all the rest of the souls, and through them, to the Creator who is in them, that's called Jerusalem, Yira Shlema [complete fear]. When we reach this, we actually enter the building of the Holy Temple where all of Malchut with all of Bina are already incorporated with one another. To the extent in which they reach Keter, and that is called, the Third Temple, where there is the thought of creation in its complete revelation within our vessels which are 100% corrected and are called, the House of Holiness or, the Temple.
Question (Sitrin): (42:59) What are the stages in building Arvut, what are the precise stages in building Arvut?
M. Laitman: What are the precise stages for building Arvut? When we define in some way a concept as a goal, we need to ask, What will compel me to come to this concept? Meaning, what is the deficiency, what is the Kli that will help me come to Him? If my goal now is to enter into Arvut, what previous degree can there be? The posterior of this degree called Arvut, which is called, a deficiency for Arvut, what could there be that will obligate me to reach Arvut? This deficiency must be a connection, a unification with the thought of creation, which is revealed only there, with the Creator – that is revealed only there, inside the Kli of Arvut. Where will I receive such a deficiency to connect with the Creator, to feel Him, to incorporate in Him, simply to drown in Him? Here, I can build a very long chain, backwards to the initial thought that comes to a person altogether, about some spiritual idea, where he doesn't even know what he's looking for. But eventually for us, as we know, as we have a group of some kind, a certain environment, for us, it is more actual to speak of what we already have.
So I would say it this way: mutual advertisement that all the groups do to all their friends, and the entire big group does to all the groups, and all the groups to one another. Thus we can raise the importance of the goal, so much so that we will want and attain it to the extent in which we will search for the Arvut only to get rid of our, I, and throw ourselves and give forces within the group. He talks about this as well in many places, Rabash especially speaks about this and calls this, The greatness of the Creator. The greatness of the Creator, the greatness of the goal, the greatness of the thought of creation, which we must advertise such that each will be impressed by this to such an extent that there's nothing greater or more important. That that's our life and the real reality and that is where we need to enter. If we do this advertisement to everyone, it won't be difficult for us to move forward through this and reach the need for Arvut and to leave ourselves and only live in others, as he explains to us in, The Giving of the Torah article.
M. Laitman: (47:51) So each needs to care for the society and make sure that the society is supplying him with the greatness of the goal, what we call the greatness of the Creator, the greatness of spirituality. With that, it supplies him with sufficient feeling of being despised and separation and truly – I don't even have words to speak about this beastly existence of ours – if the society supplies sufficiently, correctly to each and every one of us this feeling. No world around can disturb us in getting more sophisticated in this and advance in this. Because also the general thought of creation in our times from the 20th century onwards, already from the end of the 20th century begins to be disclosed in the whole world. This feeling and such a discernment that our life, that our state, that our earth and all our reality are truly at a dead end and hopeless to even reach anything good. We're disassociated, all of us, and such times will come and feelings in the world that it will help all of humanity from the outside. From the side of the thought of creation from the outside as well, to search for something more internal and deeper. To search how to exit this life altogether that's upon earth, and find some other form of existence.
So, altogether, from one year to the next, and there won't be the souls, and the records that are in the souls now, pushing a person to approach and study his life. Eventually yearn and discover what this life is for and what the meaning of life is, all these things altogether are disclosed. From year to year they become easier, it becomes easier for each of us; and, also as a group, to prove to ourselves that, and to everyone, that adhesion in the thought of creation, in the upper force, in the Creator, is truly – it's not that it is the goal, but it is simply the only form of existence that can be.
Question (Sitrin): (50:56) This means that what changed in our Congress is that now I don't need, I shouldn't think about giving the greatness of the Creator inside my small group but rather inside the general group?
M. Laitman: What's changed in our Congress is that I can, now, think about all the groups. About the very big intensity and power of all the countries where we operate, where we bring more and more people closer. As our groups are strengthening from day to day, we made a foundation, we built the Yesod, the foundation. We have one goal, one thought, we have one bylaw, our activity will be a common activity. We will summarize all our plans and help one another, one group to another, in dissemination. Because we're all dependent on one another and that's why we want to unite all our forces, our abilities. Everything that we have in us, in order to perform our work in the most beneficial way. And though each operates in a small group – and it's good that it's a small group – because it's hard to think of all the groups as one big group all the time. A person kind of gets lost in this great quantity, and also doesn't feel an immediate response from this whole big group. So he can fail in the correct approach, his attitude towards the big group; whereas in a small group where he has friends, relates to them correctly, gets the right feedback, relates to them not so much, so immediately gets some kind of response that straightens him out with the approach to the group.
That's why we also need to work in our small groups, and also towards the big group. Also towards all of humanity eventually, because besides us building a foundation, we start to build the world group, we actually start to build here a certain future foundation for the state of Kabbalah. We, certainly within a year or two, will see ourselves in a state where we're not operating like just some group of Kabbalists who want the world's correction. But rather we’ll enter practically, also now it's just not in our consciousness, we're in the correction of the world for the whole world to be aware of this. Begin to consider this, then all the forces and abilities of the world will gradually come, incorporate in this group, and then we'll start to build a foundation for a new humanity – yes, that's how it will be!
Question (Sitrin): (54:47) My personal success right now is that each one will come back to his group, he's expressed in the fact that he comes to the group, he studies? Or it's also manifested beyond that through with economical help or through deeds, does Arvut require that?
M. Laitman: Arvut is a consequence from the building of the correct environment. If a person builds his environment so it will supply him the greatness of the Creator. The greatness of this mission, this task of adhesion with the Creator; confidence that we can get to this. A necessity that we must reach this, there's no other way of existence besides reaching Dvekut [adhesion]. Confidence from the friends who cared for him more than he cares for himself. Altogether, the recognition of evil that we cannot live in this way, the recognition of good that only in adhesion I have life. The recognition of confidence and security that I can make this leap from my evil in this state towards the good. If I receive from the group all these things, then who am I? I am certainly included within this and this action becomes above us.
We need to reach, each time, in our action to a desire that is aimed correctly, then if the desire is correctly aimed, we immediately enter a certain flow, a certain stream that advances us. That kind of inhales us from there, sucks us out of that place and simply draws them, it's called the Messiah, from one degree to the next. Also, from the next degree, I need to just aim myself where is the right correction. The greatness of the goal, what is the goal exactly? There it will appear to me as a little different, what is its greatness? That it's more disconnected from the desire to receive, more abstract, expanded. Why do I want to come out of this desire to receive? Not because it will be different, but because by that I'm not incorporated in the upper one. I'm not resembling him, etc., I constantly give different discernments for the evil and for the good. They're already in a different way already, but if I make these in the right direction, I aim myself immediately, I once more enter this stream, which draws me from my degree to a higher up one, and so on.
Meaning, we don't need to make these ascents on our own, we're not capable of this or that, the light does that; we only need to build the Kli, the MAN we call it, a deficiency. For then we're incorporated and it draws us. And again, this deficiency is only made from the general force of the group that is reinforced by the forces of the world Kli. So much so that I truly see, and believe me, that there cannot be any success for anyone or any group if it won't be a general success for the whole world group.
M. Laitman: (59:34) Relatively, of course, we will enter into the upper reality and start to work in it. But there must be a certain general preparation, a certain critical mass and degree of the general deficiency that is correct – aimed correctly. So that we will be able to exit here and there partially here in groups, there in groups. It's not important that there are groups that started a year and a half ago, two years ago. We can see to what extent these new students that are incorporated within us, how they understand within a few weeks or months, and the extent to which they're in these matters. Because we don't need a study, we don't need to have knowledge in The Study of Ten Sefirot or all kinds of things. We need discernments and the discernments are received very quickly, and the more new ones will come, you'll see after a month or two, they will completely be with us together.
You can't say who will enter more and who's before, who's later, and it also won't be important because the upper, the line here is that they're all advancing and they're simply receiving. You could say it this way, it's like you make a porridge and you put some new component in there – some other matter in there – and then you have to mix it or knead it. Then you add more materials, and you have to mix it again. But when we put it in, already it starts to be mixed. So here and there it's a little more, a little less, but eventually this mixture will, this mixing will come by much quicker and there'll be no difference between the groups. It will be, but they will be very minute; we see now, the group, we'll see this. We don't need to do, make calculations, country is there, it's far, distant, a small group, new students, not veterans, that's not the correct calculation. Also those who are being revealed now are revealed with much healthy records that are more scrutinized.
So in one Kli, there's no great and small, it's one Kli. It's not that these are like some nice words, this is how the vessel functions. We also know that the greatest coarseness is below, the greatest refinement is above, and the reflected light, it's the opposite. So then we complement the coarseness and refinement in each degree – the direct light plus the reflected light, connect in a triangle, the upper triangle and lower triangle connecting together – and there's no difference between any one here.
Question (Sitrin): (01:03:01) Beyond the fact that the group pulls you up, like you said, that there is a current that pulls you in stages is there any individual factor that discriminates between the stages?
M. Laitman: I didn't understand?
Student: The group, this one vessel, you talked about a single vessel, you said there's a current that pulls the whole group between the stages. Each one in his stage with this dough, this mixture. Now, does an individual have some factor in the advancing between the stages in this game, in between the stages?
M. Laitman: It turns out that they're in the group, that there's five from Bnei Baruch Israel, from Bnei Baruch Moscow, and they're from – I don't know, Minnesota or Philadelphia – and that will be seemingly the more internal layer of the group, more superior, more to the right, more to the left, and that's how it is. We don't even know how we're connected in this place, it's not a matter of a physical connection. Each operates in his group according to certain qualities, and these specific qualities connect this way. Look, we have what we call the inner HaVaYaH, which is considered the four phases of direct light. The root phase and then 1, 2, 3, and 4, which are called the tip of the Yod, Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey. There's nothing besides this, besides this, this inner HaVaYaH gives forth its branches. All the branches are also divided into the tip of Yod, Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey; Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, Malchut.
However, it turns out, Keter is above, and from it, all the Keters in reality. Hochma is above, and from it, all the Hochmas from all of reality. So, in all reality, in all the levels, you have Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey. But the Keter in a certain group, or a certain level is connected with all the Keters. Hochma in the whole group is connected with all the wisdoms in the whole world. You see, we're not saying that we're billionaires, that we are in one Kli. No, we're in a completely different Kli, where according to our qualities, we are connected. So, it could be here and there and there in all the places of the world. They connect, and they're what remains in all the groups and connects because everywhere you have representatives of these qualities. So, you understand the extent to which the group is like a mash that all materials have been mixed in.
Question (Sitrin): (01:06:10) Now, beyond this mash, this dough, I heard you say that there are stages and there are ascents and descents, and if we will keep the joy, we will be able to get out of more difficult states and only ascend. We will have more ascents and fewer descents. Does an individual play a role in that, or is it only the society as a whole that can help in that. Or maybe a small group inside of the bigger group?
M. Laitman: A person's work is in the group, not to work on himself, to work in the group, for the group, for the benefit of the group – that is the expression called bestowal. That's an expression of bestowal. If you, I study, I think, I want, I, I, I, then you're seemingly entering the path of sufferings. Of course, certainly soon you will have revealed to you that the surrounding light will show you the posterior. That you're not on the right direction, but you will be discovered after years. You'll see that you went incorrectly, that you always thought about the inside instead of outside, meaning in the opposite direction that the light is, then you distance from it instead of adhering.
So it's true, this distancing eventually will give you the recognition that certainly you are distanced. You have distanced but until you distance and discover that you're opposite, and then start to come closer again, how long does that take, years. That's why we need the group to brainwash me, to obligate me, to beat me, to not enable me; not allow me to go in the opposite direction. Constantly draw me inwards and constantly awaken in me to contribute to it. But not from like the oar, not from the whip or from blows, but rather from showing the importance and necessity and the uniqueness of how only through this, in this way you can advance to the goal. That, this is the direction of the Creator, of the light, and not the opposite. The recognition of evil is considered that I have no choice, I want to advance to the Creator, and it's the same like advancing to the center of the group. Now, certainly, in the center of the group, if I'm in the center where I completely disappear, my, I, completely disappears. You begin to feel only the general incorporation, that's where the building of the first nine begins, and where the spirituality is felt, begins to be felt, the Creator.
Question (Sitrin): (01:09:14) Assuming that a person understands it, and he feels it, like you said now, that only the group?
M. Laitman: It's not from the assumption that a person feels and understands this, it's before a person feels and understands. We're talking about people who don't feel or understand, the group needs to do this. I came to the group, what do I know? I felt bad in the group. I'm seeking the answer to why I'm alive, what will I have from all this life? I come with such a question and besides that, I don't know a thing, I feel bad and that's it. The group needs to build me, it needs to supply me with all the correct form. I, myself, a person, himself, is never capable of building himself, by what? I need to see a model according to what I need to build myself. When I enter the group, it's like my desire to receive enters into a certain mold, so to speak, and then from it comes out the image of the Creator.
Question (Sitrin): (01:10:26) Assuming a person has passed through the stage, has a personal feeling, feels that he can play with it somewhat, is it possible?
M. Laitman: A person who has come to a state where he is in a society with his desires, his abilities, his whole self is immersed there completely, is in spirituality, already. The extent that he can immerse himself in the group, it is considered that he has entered the feeling of the spiritual world. If on all his discernments, all his desires, whatever comes to him, he is in the group, it's called, Gmar Tikkun, the end of correction. If I can, it's called the world of Ein Sof: if I can be inside the group partially, it's called being at some degree of the worlds. The worlds is my partial relation to the group where it's still not all of me, but I am giving myself to the public, to the friends, to humanity by 20 or 30 percent. But if I can do it, if I can give myself up 100 percent, it's called having completed my correction, and the minute I can give myself to the friends even in one gram to humanity. At that moment I begin to feel spirituality on the smallest level, and the more I can give myself, let's acquire these corrections. It's called ascending higher and higher on the degrees of the world, entering deeper and deeper into the thought of creation, to do good to His creation, becoming more and more similar to it. The worlds are not like – it's from here when we climb up – we only say this because this is how we depict higher things in our world. But actually it's not from above, when a person begins to feel it, it's not from above, it's from him inwards. Into this thought that is revealed to him, that is all over the world.
Question (Sitrin): (01:12:44) So ,until you're 100 percent of this, your feelings might be incorrect, you can interpret them incorrectly?
M. Laitman: Before a person feels the presence of the thought of creation that is in a little bit, that it's one thought. Before a person feels for the first time that thought, that it passes through all of us and fills all of us. We are submerged in it, and we move only by its orders. Until he feels all of that, this world is more important to him, he doesn't imagine that such a reality exists, that spirituality really exists. That to be in it is the most important thing and the eternal perfect thing, he still doesn't have it. This is why this is what we have to yearn for. In the minute we started talking about one group, about a month ago, I, also, started speaking in a different way, in a more emotional way, more kind of palpable way to direct them to search for that feeling.
Question (Sitrin): (01:14:18) Yesterday I heard you describe a state of how you have a feeling and then the misery arises, is filled, and then it goes down again – talking about these stages of ascent and descent. Does a person have some is there some involvement in this? Can you touch it or are these things completely animalistic, without any control over it?
M. Laitman: When we talk about ascents and descents, it's a feeling that a person feels, but what is an ascent and what is a descent? An ascent may be that I feel good, and a descent, I feel bad. An ascent may be where I'm closer to the Creator, and it may be that at the same time I don't feel good but I'm close to Him, and this is why it's good. Along with it, it can be that in my feeling, in my sensation, I feel worse, but it's more real, it's more worthwhile, also in the will to receive, but this is what I want. A person constantly changes his measurements, his yardstick, the scale, the weight by which he weighs what is good and what is bad – what he regards as good and what is called bad for him. The quality of his measuring tools changes; not the quantity, I feel so good, even better, even better, no. What today is good for me compared to yesterday. Has it changed qualitatively?
Question (Sitrin): (01:16:42) Is it correct to always yearn to feel the upper force and to strive not to exit it and only by connecting and feeling it to do all of our actions?
M. Laitman: Of course, it's true, it's correct, this is called, Beware and try to never leave the authority of holiness, the domain of holiness. If I feel the upper force, if I feel this thought, if I feel I'm in it, it determines my thoughts – it determines my actions, what could be better? So, of course I should be in this all the time, and then my actions, just any corporeal action in this life will also have a reason, and a direction, and a result that are correct. All of my actions can seem like anybody else's actions on the outside, but on the inside, there will be a different feeling. Before a person is incorporated in the thought of creation and operates from within it, all his actions are incorrect. This is why we who are in double concealment or single concealment are either called, Complete wicked or incomplete wicked. After we are incorporated in the thought of creation and understand, feel, operate by how it is revealed to us within us. According to the power in which it is revealed in us, by this we are called righteous – either incomplete righteous or complete righteous.
In other words, only the measure of revelation in us, in our senses of the thought of creation, by this we are rewarded with the correct actions. And before it is revealed, we're all wicked. Wicked, what does it mean wicked, does the person know or understand? This is what it's called, someone who cannot obey this field of the thought of creation with his own will, with his own will. Meaning with his own recognition, with his own will, he is called wicked. Even if he does it without any awareness, like animals, like beasts, like any – he's also called wicked. This is what Kabbalists called it, all those who are below the barrier, and vice versa; to the extent that we rise above the barrier, to that extent the upper force controls us. We cannot perform incorrect actions but rather, our mind, our desires already operate in congruence with this thought that we feel, that it operates in all of reality. The interesting thing is that, actually, scientists recently, physicists, also come to the same observation: they say that in all of our reality, there is this one thought that operates, and it operates all of matter and all the forces, etc. They speak in a way that is very close to ours.
These things should also be revealed from above and from below, from all directions. I remember talking about Kabbalah 25 years ago with anyone, it was very difficult. What for, why, what's in it, it doesn't exist. In general, people didn't feel, and also science doesn't say this, and life. And today, it's as if from every direction, you've got proof, you've got support, there's already the general despair. So that the Arvut, the mutual responsibility that we say that we have to receive, you're getting it from the outside world, from your internal despair, from the group you're incorporated in. It comes and grows stronger, it's no longer that difficult.
Question (Sitrin): (01:21:39) In the past, there was a group with one teacher that worked together very nicely. But today, with the virtual lessons, and your lessons, and other teachers, there's a change. Must this group remain with one teacher?
M. Laitman: The world group can be a group if it receives from one source, one teacher.
Student: In Tel Aviv or Netanya?
M. Laitman: It doesn't matter where, it doesn't matter, if a group – you're talking about Israeli groups – if Israeli groups do not receive from one source, if they do not connect to us in the virtual lessons, they will not be groups, they will not be groups, simple. It will be something completely different, they may study the same material. They may study our articles, what we say. In the morning lesson, we talked about it, and they talk about it in the evening, but not in our lesson, or recorded, or in real time, but given by someone else, it will not be the same, it will not be the same, what can you do? Regrettably, for the time being, this is how it works; let's hope we will have many teachers and such teachers that can travel and do the same task exactly as if from one mouth, from their mouths to all over the world.
Student: What about from the Tel Aviv area?
M. Laitman: What's it got to do with the area, I don't understand? What's it got to do with the area? The thing is that if it's one group, it has to hear from one mouth, not the same material. The same material from different people can be given in a thousand other ways, we know how we can study anything. So, we have no choice, this is why we went to this painful act that all the groups, we have to connect them to one lesson. Ideally at the same time and if not, then at a different time, but at least it has to be the exact same thing. We have no choice for now, I hope that there will be more students among us, great Kabbalists, from a certain level onwards, I will be able to give lessons from the same source, so that they will not be confused and that they will have correct command of the material, what can you do? I hope it will happen soon but until then, I have no choice.
I mean, I'm not talking about additional lessons, tutoring, meals, or activities, or picnics. Of course, all those things, do them everywhere and it will be correct but at the same time, we must hear and learn the same material at the same time and in one conveyance, this will connect us. I'm not talking about beginners, about lectures to beginners, I'm not talking about lessons to beginners, the first few lessons until they can perhaps become incorporated. But after that, we have to guard because it will be a problem for him, meaning it's a problem. You give 10 lessons, 15 lessons and then disconnect them from the live teacher, we have to still follow. I saw that there's no choice. I thought about teaching a small group, but then I saw that in this, there's completely no connection and insufficient powers everywhere to advance. When we connect together, we immediately feel great benefit. Although it may be difficult to pass, to move, but we have to.
Question (Sitrin): (01:26:41) How can a small group and a small person in some group help the big group?
M. Laitman: I think there's no problem because we have one organization; we have a system that I hope we will build it in this uniform way. There are plans, activities, mutual help, processing the material, publications and activities. So, we can travel here and there, and help as well, help materially in instruments, funds, material, everything, human resource, it's still external things. The important thing is the work, that's the important thing with my group, too. What do I connect to when I hug them? We can hug someone at the same time, stab with a knife. An embrace doesn't have to be physical, right, that's it.
So, we need to maintain that, to guard it. In the lessons we're doing now, we have to do them as tangible as possible, as tactile as possible so we have like a closer feeling. So, we need to connect more, to write more, to meet more, to correspond. But it will come, the more we exert in this, we rise to different levels of communication, more spiritual levels. Then we won't have a problem feeling this breath, how the whole spiritual group breathes, what state it's in. What – how should I put it – it's like looking at a person, what mood he's in, how fit he is, what he is living on now. This is how we'll feel it, it's not a problem.
Question (Sitrin): (01:29:18) Can you sharpen a bit more the matters of weights and rulers?
M. Laitman: Oh, I don't know, help me! How can we describe better describe the matter of weights and rulers, measurements? That every time we advance, we advance not by power but by unity? What was important for us yesterday becomes unimportant, and we get importance of something that yesterday was completely negligible, right? There's a reason why we make the Sukkah, the thatch of the Sukkah from the waste of barn and winery. It's written, where you find the greatness of the Creator, there you find His humbleness, right, specifically in the low places, we discover the greatness. Things that in our will to receive are completely unimportant, you begin to relate to them. It takes a long time, maybe today not so long but it can take years. If you suddenly begin to relate to them, you begin to see more importance in them, more uniqueness, grace. You can't explain in advance how, all of a sudden, an act of giving, love, incorporation in something, becomes important instead of an act of acquisition. That's the way it is, and actually, this is the yardstick, the ruler that constantly changes.
Student: Is it basically the vessel that we're building?
M. Laitman: Our vessel begins from the root coarseness, what is the root coarseness? When we make a restriction on our entire desire, compared to the importance of the group, the importance of bestowal. If I can do this, even though I'm riding on all of this importance, on all of this coarseness of mine. But if for the sake of bestowal, for the sake of the group, for the sake of spirituality, I can restrict it and not relate to it. To choke myself but – not choke forcefully but – with a correction against the desire, it turns out that from that moment onwards, I begin to enter spirituality.
Student: Correction against desire, is that basically the screen?
M. Laitman: From then, from that restriction onwards, the screen begins to be built.
Question (Sitrin): (01:32:43) So, that screen, you have no ability to control it beyond the group, itself? Is that the whole process of this mixture?
M. Laitman: Can I control the screen? The screen is a force created in me by which I can control my will to receive beyond restricting it. First, I restricted it, now through the screen, I can use it also for the purpose of my incorporation with the thought of creation, with holiness, with society. With what can I incorporate, if not with my coarseness, my desires? Just to be there like a drop of sperm, without any movement of my own? So, it turns out that that will to receive that is in me, I suddenly begin to feel that it can work in a positive way. That I can give it all of the ego, all my desires that previously I used to draw everything to myself. I see, just like you see how people worked yesterday, they could do their job, could work in their jobs. Maybe make a lot of money and think how they buy everything; and yesterday, with just as much energy, actually, with more, they worked on things that they could, that they didn't have to work on. So, you're working with the same forces, with the same, each one with his own abilities, one in electricity, one in that, one in that. It was all beautiful, and the world, as it's written, behaves as it always does, it doesn't change, we don't change. We will work in this way and live with families and have kids. Everything continues, except our vessels will change, and along with this world, we will feel eternity and wholeness.
We don't understand how much it will not interfere with our present existence – we will still have cups, and napkins, and tables, and everything. And a person will also live and die. He will not see it as separation from something or reception of some different reality. It will be an addition by which a person can rise even higher. Just as yesterday or the days before yesterday, groups went away from here; usually, they would all cry. I remember with Moscow group, I came out with a wet shirt! Oh, it's not good without you, what are we going to do there, really? And they didn't say anything. But today, because we already started building the new reality and we're facing the future, so I couldn't explain it at once. Today, it's completely different, they didn't even say goodbye to me, they just went on the bus and went away! It's very good, very good, it's a sign that they didn't feel inside that they were separating.
So, the same applies to a person who enters the upper world, he doesn't feel that he's separated from life, that his body dies. He lives in his soul, he sympathizes with his soul; and this life to him is just like you get a new haircut or you change your shirt, he doesn't feel it. He does get an addition when he goes down to this world from only the spiritual existence, and this additional coarseness helps him rise higher still.
Question (Sitrin): (01:37:10) Let's go back a little bit to that point of building a screen: you're in a certain awareness and aware of something there. Is there some point where you can do something there or still in the society?
M. Laitman: In spirituality, when you're incorporated in spirituality, you operate through the society. You discover this upper force and it and the society becomes one, there is no difference between them. The society and the Creator become as one because the power of bestowal is bestowal. If the society is in bestowal, if you're in bestowal, if the Creator is in bestowal, then what's the difference between them? The Creator is not revealed more than in the society, you cannot reveal them more than you are in bestowal. So it turns out that the three of them are as one.
If I am incorporated in the group, to the extent that I'm incorporated in it, what does it mean incorporated in it? I developed within me forces of bestowal, right, to the extent that I'm in bestowal. According to the measure of equivalence of form, I can feel the thought of creation, the upper force, the Creator, right? Where do we meet Him? We meet Him in the group, or even without a group – never mind. But in that same ability to bestow that I have already acquired, it turns out that the group that is in bestowal, and the Creator, Who is in bestowal, and I who am in bestowal are revealed equally on an equal level and that's the way it is each time. So, it turns out that I cannot advance more than the group, and the group cannot advance more than each of its individuals. And the Creator cannot be revealed within us more than we are; here, I still want to add something in parenthesis, in certain boundaries: there's one who can do more, one who can do less but we do have to be at a certain level. Everyone at a certain level so each and every individual can be a little beyond that, according to his contribution to the common vessel. But still, it cannot happen that one, it will be revealed to one, and everyone else will be, or even that there won't be a group, there has to be a general yearning, a general purpose. This view, this message has to be understood, living, and from within it, a person can jump. There has to be some preparation from which you are flying upwards, soaring.
Question (Sitrin): (01:40:56) This topic that a group now begins to receive ascents and descents together and it's even felt externally, how can we use this to advance?
M. Laitman: We still haven't received a descent. This diagram I drew, we received a descent, received a descent – I'm talking about the Russian groups, I don't know about the Israeli groups – well, those who were there in those days, right? So, we received an ascent, and we started receiving a small descent, but we haven't received it. Now we will go through, a week or two will pass, and we will begin to feel this coarseness very well. How we're all falling, how bad it is, how dark it is, we'll feel powerless, we don't need it, we don't want it – leave us alone. Everyone will be in this. I know it, I'm waiting for it without any fear.
But really, I remember I was afraid of the descents; there are such descents that you're afraid because you know that you can't control yourself, you cannot move yourself. You're in a state where you're simply going to be a corpse, you feel death, it's better not to feel life. Rabash would say, if there were some sleeping pill from the beginning of the descent to the end of the descent, you could take it and then you sleep through it. It would be good but then it wouldn't be a descent, how would you come out of it? But now, we need to be ready for this descent. This is why I talked about it as if it actually already happened, but it hasn't actually happened but it will.
Those overseas, here we received some phones, a few phone calls that they are still continuing, they feel good. Now, they are receiving this inspiration from us. They're still nourished by us, and let's hope that on our part, outwards and from them back to us, it will come and it will be as one cycle. Rabash would always say that the difference between one person and a group is that one person, just as he would walk into a room and would shut himself off and dance and sing. This is how he would pull himself out of a descent, a great Kabbalist used to do this – he was like Rabbi Shimon from the market. So, the good thing about the group is a group doesn't have to ever be in a descent because it's like a cycle. When one jumps up, the other one is down. All together, they maintain their general level, they can keep on rising and rising. There are ups and downs but your descent, I immediately cover it with my ascent, if you're incorporated in me, and then I'm in you. This way, we're constantly in a state where it's good that each one goes down for a minute, but he immediately gets help from others. If we create this cycle, not each one in his own small group but in our big world group, what power! We could be in elation and yearning for the goal and high spirits all the time!
Only responsibility toward each other, not to pay attention to yourself, only the responsibility that someone can fall because of me, if you have this fear. This also has to do with shame, it can save us, it can position us in a way that we are constantly rising. On the contrary, each one will contribute to his descent, but you have to immediately grab onto the ascent, you don't need to be in a descent more than a minute. The minute you start feeling that you're descending, you have to reconnect, and that connection will be stronger than before. The descents have to be for a fraction of a second, like Rabbi Zusha said that he had 400 descents and ascents in 10 minutes or so. If we do this in the world group, I guarantee everyone a life like in paradise!
M. Laitman: (01:46:06) Yes, yes, and you'll see that there will be nothing bad, not physical, not spiritual, because all the bad comes because the light drifts away. The light becomes hidden and concealed and if we are in a big – are in elation in a big group – there will be nothing. Kabbalists, too, suffered. They also got sick with all the illnesses, but it was because they are incorporated with all of humanity. They take on the sorrow, the affliction of the public, yes, of the environment, and they had no choice. Because they accept the sorrow of the public, they take all the deficiencies of the public and they become sick. Baal HaSulam was very sick, he had very acute rheumatism, and he died of cancer. But we know that all those things are because of the incorporation in the rest of humanity. He had nothing to incorporate with, but if we are incorporated with each other, then I guarantee you also physical health, spiritual health, nothing can happen to such a person.
What government, police, courthouses, problem with kids, you name it, all the problems are because of all kinds of concealments of the light. If we constantly keep it in such a way that it will operate on us at a certain level, you'll see the whole group rising above the world – truly so, like some flying saucer! It's very easy for us to do this today, it's just a matter of mutual agreement, mutual contribution, mutual support.
Question (Sitrin): (01:48:11) How can this be that if there's one group and it descends, and you said there will still be a descent?
M. Laitman: It cannot be that in a group, everyone is in a descent or everyone is in ascent, it's not organized this way, the group is like one body with all kinds of parts. When some are sick, some are healthy, etc. If in our body, what are doctors saying about a person, God forbid, there's no general force of the body, the whole body is hurt. Maybe that's a little bit living, yet, and that's a little bit living, but it's already – but if there are some organs in the body that are healthy and some are sick, then you can even replace these parts some way or maybe heal them somehow, cure them. But if there's a healthy part, right? Same goes for us, there can never be a general descent. We didn't connect our groups and each group within. It's connected according to certain records, certain connection from Adam HaRishon. That's why it's all arranged for us, here, in such a way that we support each other unconsciously. If we support each other this way, we'll always have some that are in descent, some in ascent – some are going upwards, some are going downwards. So that the group will always be able to be in a good state, in a state of spiritual elevation.
Question (Sitrin): (01:49:49) What preparations can we make before descent?
M. Laitman: The preparations are simple: don't come down from this general feeling of a world group and from connection and thought about it, concern for it, that's all – concern. This is what gives us the vessel, the MAN so that from above there will be the guarding. Concern is MAN, it's actually a plea to the Creator to guard us, preserve us.
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Reader: In this lesson, we finished the Citrine Congress 2003, and now let's share impressions from the lessons and what we're taking for realization in the Ten.
Reader: Let's move on to the next part of the lesson. But beforehand, we'll sing a song together.
Song: (01:56:54)