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

Daily Lesson (Morning), May 31, 2024.

Part 1: Rabash. Letter 12-1, 12-2.

Reader: Hello, we are reading in the writings of Rabash, Letter 12, Part 1. You can find the study materials also in Sviva Tova and in the Galaxy Systems. You can also send us questions through our website. Anyone who wants to ask here in the study hall is asked to stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth, and speak loud and clear. Again, the writings of Rabash, Letter 12. 

Reading Letter: (00:32) Rabash Letter 12-1.

To my friend,

Yesterday, I received your letter intended for the people of Gateshead. In the meantime, I am passing your letter to the friends in London, and I would mainly like to get them to answer your letter so there will be correspondence between you. If this succeeds, it will bring great benefit both in corporeality and in spirituality.

I am writing to you the content of the talk that I gave on a weekday of the festival of Sukkot before the students of the late Rav Desler concerning the “shadow of faith”: We have to know that “shadow,” meaning concealment, is the Kli (vessel) to be rewarded with the light of faith.

By that I have interpreted the words of our sages about the verse, “so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in Sukkot (huts).” They were clouds of glory, according to the words of Rabbi Eliezer. Rabbi Akiva says they were actual Sukkot. And I asked, “How can there be such a fundamental dispute between them, where one says, actual Sukkot, meaning corporeal huts, and the other says a spiritual Sukkah, of clouds of glory?”

However, both are the words of the living God, and there is no dispute here whatsoever. Rather, one says that the main thing is to mention the Kelim (vessels), and the other the lights. Actual Sukkot means actual concealments, from the word “thatch,” which is called “shade.” Rabbi Eliezer says that we must mention the lights, called “seven clouds of glory,” which is regarded as faith. Both discernments coincided at the time of the exodus from Egypt. Therefore, when we set ourselves straight, we are rewarded with the light. However, we must not think that there is no delight or pleasure when working Lishma (for Her sake).

I told them an allegory about that: We must know that the world was created with a desire to receive. Therefore, as soon as a baby is born, it wants to enjoy through its final day—such as for us to play with it. And when it grows, it wants only delight and pleasure.

We must know that pleasure is a spiritual thing. We cannot grasp the pleasure; it is light, and there is a rule that there is no light without a Kli. Therefore, each pleasure must come within some clothing.

For this reason, we determine that each delight and pleasure is truth, since each pleasure extends from the light, and the only difference between man and beast is only in the clothing, meaning in the Kelim. And certainly, the light dresses according to the value of the Kli. However, this is in particular. In general, there is no difference between a great man and a small man but only in the clothing.

Just as we see that when a little girl is playing with a doll, the pleasure she feels is real, and if we, the parents, want her to leave the doll and go eat, the girl thinks that she has cruel parents, meaner than the neighbors, since the neighbors don’t interrupt her playing and her parents do. We also see that if there is a six month old baby in the house and he is crying, and we say to the girl, “Why are you playing with the doll and kissing it? It’s a false baby, come and play with a real baby,” she refuses, even though we are certain this is a true clothing.

And if we can say to the girl, “Why are you not enjoying the real baby?” she will have no answer. But if we tell her, “You see how the baby’s mother is playing with him?” or “Even other people are playing with the boy and kissing him, and it will never happen that a grown-up will play with a doll and kiss it.” At that time she will probably reply that the real pleasure is actually in the doll, meaning in a false clothing, and the reason why grown-ups kiss and play with real babies is only that they have no desire for pleasure, but I want to enjoy my life, so I must be happy with the doll.” It is indeed so, but a person who is still not sufficiently developed cannot derive pleasure from true clothing although there is pleasure there. It is likewise with the case of from Lo Lishma and Lishma.

This allegory contains the answer to our friend’s letter…

Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag

M. Laitman: (08:20) Is there anything to ask? It's a simple matter. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:33) It's clear to me that every student, wherever he is, cannot know where he is in his spiritual development in the building of the vessel. He speaks about the thatch, but it seems to me that Rabash gives us some measurements, some indication here, to know where we are. And I'm quoting from the end, this is what caught my attention. “However, a person who is not sufficiently developed cannot derive pleasure from true clothing, although there is pleasure there.” This means that a person who receives pleasure from bestowal, we can say that he is already on the right path. He has the possibility to build a vessel, compared to a person who doesn't behave this way. Of course, we know that there are all kinds of degrees of pleasure in bestowal, but this explicitly speaks about a person who has a yearning, he has a desire. And this is to bestow, this is the pleasure, the true pleasure, that is, we can know, the moment that we feel it, we can actually know that we're on the right path. Because we always wonder where are we. So this is a kind of an insight that I got at the end. Can you relate to that, maybe? 

M. Laitman: We need to think. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (10:12) He writes that the shade called concealment is the vessel of which to be rewarded with the light of faith. What is this formula? 

M. Laitman: The shadow, concealment, it's felt in the person pushing him in the direction of recognizing the light of faith, knowing the light of faith.

Student: Shade is a state that the Creator awakens on him, or he..? 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, the Creator awakens it. 

Student: What should a person do when he feels shade or shadow? 

M. Laitman: To first see who he received this sensation from, what it's aimed at. What's its purpose, what's the benefit of it, and so he should advance through these scrutinies. 

Student: From the shadow he emerges to the light? Or in the shadow he feels the Upper One? 

M. Laitman: Within the shadow, he understands that he received it from the Creator and that it's in his benefit. And that he needs to learn how to live inside the shadow and to enjoy it, and to understand its greatness and so on. 

Student: What is the light that is revealed in the shadow, how is light revealed in the shadow? 

M. Laitman: In the shadow, the same light exists but it depends on the person's attitude.

Student: When is a person in the light? 

M. Laitman: The person enters the shadow because the Creator is enveloping him so. And that awakens him to study the reasons why he received this. What he can get from it, and ultimately feel that these things are to his benefit because it's specifically through the shadow that he can come to know the whole of reality. 

Student: This investigation, research, of the Upper One of a person is in the shadow. He researches and he searches for Him. Why did He do that to him, this brings him to the light? 

M. Laitman: Yes, because he begins to recognize that it's the shadow of the Creator, that it's a shadow that the Creator brings to him. And this is so the person begins to know the light, the darkness, and what's between them. 

Student: The feeling of the shadow of the Creator is enough for the person, or he has to emerge through the light, not remain in the shadow? 

M. Laitman: No, no, no, from within the shadow. Within the shadow, he is willing to remain. Under its shade, I sat, and so on. He feels it as revelation, as sweetness, and so on. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:07) He asks, how can there be such a fundamental dispute between the two so that one would say actual Sukkot, meaning a corporeal Sukkah, a spiritual Sukkah of the clouds of glory? He later answers, but why does he say that both are important, the illusion as well as the truth, the true reality?

M. Laitman: Yes, we still do need to maintain the actual corporeal Sukkah. 

Student: Then he continues and answers that both of these are the words of a living God, and there is no dispute here, before he says there was a dispute. But one says that mainly we need to mention the vessels, the other says the lights, that's fine. But we know that there are no lights without vessels so you have to build a vessel, otherwise there would be no lights. So why does he say it's equal, one comes before the other? 

M. Laitman: Through closeness to the vessels, coming closer to the vessels, we reveal the lights. 

Student: Then he says that both discernments together existed back then, in the exodus from Egypt. So what does it mean that these two qualities have to come together? What is together? 

M. Laitman: Light and darkness. 

Student: Together?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: We have to attain the light and darkness, together?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: That's the solution, not each one separately?

M. Laitman: No. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:58) All that we do, we come to study and we connect, we can say that we're still playing with dolls? 

M. Laitman: Well, it's not dolls, but, nonetheless, it's still not the truth.

Student: The desire to play with a true, a real baby, it will come by itself as we grow up, or do we have to force it? Push it somehow, how does it come?

M. Laitman: Both, the Creator supplies the awakening, He gives opportunities to examine the essence of the connection between us, and so on. But we need to make an effort.

Student: In the example here, the girl doesn't want to play with the baby, she wants to stay with the doll. So the question is: Will we actually want to reach the truth, not remain with the doll?

M. Laitman: You have all kinds, you have people who prefer to live in this lie. They don't want to recognize that it's a lie and that there's something more exalted, more real. And they subdue themselves, surrender. There are such for whom it's the opposite, even if they don't have such a strong desire for spirituality, they warm themselves up. They take care to be oriented towards spirituality, and so on, you have all kinds. It all depends on the environment and so we need to regard our environment, our whole large group, and to care for it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:19) The clothing of the falsehood, we say it's a falsehood, but to a person, to the student, it is felt as truth. In what we learned, it's a clothing of truth, there's no taste there, no feeling there?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: What do we do? The student should go and choose the place where there is no feeling and engage in that, and then in this process?

M. Laitman: To make an effort, to perform actions which are closer to the truth. 

Student: Even if there's no feeling there?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Then what will happen? And then the feeling will appear, or for eternity it will stay dry?

M. Laitman: No, no, there cannot be a feeling there but he will feel that he has darkness in that. And then he'll begin to search for the way to reach the actual truth, darkness and truth, sensation and falsehood. You will begin to search, you will begin to ask for the truth.

Student: This means that it's a necessary condition in our work. This, at some point a person will be enough, I'm not even sure what quality you need to persist, to be courageous, I don't know. Sit there in the darkness with no feeling and still perform the actions?

M. Laitman: Perform the actions and try to come closer to the darkness as you would to the light. Because he has no vessels. So he needs to have these vessels, the vessels of bestowal, and by that, he will reach the light.

Student: And then, bit by bit, the vessels will be formed?

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, of course. 

Student: And this process, it's what, it's a long process, a short process?

M. Laitman: It’s all under the Creator's control.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (21:00) I was thinking about a girl and why she doesn't want to play with the real baby. I realized it's because of fear, she's afraid to touch the baby, so?

M. Laitman: No, no, she just doesn't have vessels for it, she just doesn't have the vessels. She says, mother is righteous, she's in some spiritual attainment, I guess. And she feels and understands what it means to receive spiritual pleasures, pleasures of bestowal. And so she can play with the living, actual baby, but I'm not, I'm still a little child and I'm fine this way, and I don't want to exit my own framework.

Student: If the mother will force her to play with the living child, the baby, it might harm the baby or the girl.

M. Laitman: Yes, okay, so he takes from this example what he needs.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:24) He writes that there is a rule there's no light without a vessel, so every pleasure must come inside some clothing. The question is we always have deficiencies, the deficiencies change. How do we build a vessel, or what he means here, so that we will receive the filling in the right way?

M. Laitman: We can awaken the reforming light upon ourselves, we can connect together. We can expect the darkness to shine as the light, as the day, through our connection, and so to continue.

Student: I'm talking about during the day. Let's say all kinds of deficiencies come, there are interesting kinds of corporeal things, different things. How from these deficiencies, how do we build a vessel from them? What do we need to do in order to receive it in the right way?

M. Laitman: Throughout the day, you need to make an effort to see, to be close to a state where the Creator governs reality, bestowing upon you His actions. Meaning, inviting the action of the lights upon you and you need, accordingly, to be closer to the Creator.

Student: To be closer, you mean, that all kinds of deficiencies when they come to understand, I gave the example once of lack of confidence. I realize that I don't need to perform some action in order to receive confidence but what's actually lacking is the Creator?

M. Laitman: What's lacking is the Creator and you want to know Him, to be with Him, together, to connect like two liquids. They actually combine, connect, to the point where you cannot separate them.

Student: I'll go deeper into the example to scrutinize it: Right now, I have a desire for pleasure from food, I really want to eat something but inside I know I don't really need this food. It's not really necessary for me, it's just something inside that is drawing me to this thing and then I have a scrutiny. I know that here, if I felt the Creator to some extent or something, I wouldn't need this food, it's not necessary. So, how do you operate at that point, what is the action that I need to do?

M. Laitman: What do you usually do?

Student: There's a struggle here. I feel a struggle within. Sometimes I overcome it, and I say, I don't really need this thing, I don't know. I go and read something, or I talk, or I perform some action that will connect me to the source and I succeed in overcoming. And then there is a feeling that I can't quite explain but it feels good. Sometimes, I don't succeed, I go to the pleasure, and I feel, and then I feel frustrated. So, here, at that point, what's your recommendation, what's your advice? Or is it enough to just stop this direct feeling, and that already does the work?

M. Laitman: We need to try, there's none as wise as the experienced.

Student: So, how do you build, according to the article, as much as we can understand it, now? I don't know what the article actually said, but how do I build a vessel? With the example I gave, what does it mean to build a vessel?

M. Laitman: With the example of the doll? 

Student: No, what I told you now, is that I have a craving for something, I have a lack for something, external.

M. Laitman: You need to check if through this action you receive real pleasure or false pleasure. 

Student: Even if it is a necessary action, is that also something I need to check, if it's necessary or not?

M. Laitman: You determine. 

Student: Yes, I determine it, if I know that it's not necessary, then I need to overcome, not do it, not receive it in this way?

M. Laitman: Well, let's say. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:31) Maybe we received a partial answer from the two, from the scrutinies we had, now. But the girl, who is, when her parents tell her to go and eat, she condemns them. What kind of parents are these, the neighbors don't tell me anything and I want this pleasure. How in these states do we not condemn the Creator, the Creator forces you to do something. And you say, leave me alone, I'm satisfied with this pleasure?

M. Laitman: That's the state of a person who doesn't want to ascend, to rise above where he is. And then, there's another thing here: To connect with the environment, and through the forces he finds in the environment, to also, be a part of them and rise with them.

Student: In the example they said, a girl really resists it, she says, I want to play with the doll, I get pleasure from that. The girl actually enjoys the doll, not like a woman.

M. Laitman: Yes, but again, here you have several means by which to perform the act of connecting between you and the environment. And only through the environment can you climb that horse, mount that horse, and transition yourself to a different state.

Student: It's a state where the girl is unaware. You're telling me that I have a society, I have an environment. And here I need to reach a prayer and that, too, should come from the Creator, no? This state, even if He forces me, on the one hand there is resistance. But I need Him also to help me to get out of this state, right?

M. Laitman: It’s necessary, but this is something we still need to reach. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:59) The Ten sits and has a workshop, it wants to scrutinize the truth. It wants to scrutinize, let's say if it's a doll and falsehood or not. There's a feeling that some still enjoy the doll, they enjoy it and others do not. So how do we reach this point in a workshop, in the Ten, in scrutinies, how do we reach the point of truth?

M. Laitman: If you're already tied to the Ten, together with it, in collective action, then enter sharing with them to the best of your ability even more so. And by that you'll begin to attain the inner force which exists in such doing, that raises you up.

Student: To attain the inner force, well, there are many words, many words in a workshop. Each one says something, what he thinks.

M. Laitman: No, in a workshop, by the way, there aren't that many words. You should always try to, to compact the workshop into question and answer, that's it, no more. Maybe one more step, one more question and answer.

Student: My inner inclination, when I sit with the friends in a workshop, what should it be? Sorry for asking again.

M. Laitman: It should be such that you feel connection, incorporation with the environment in such a way where the current state you understand and the final state you also understand. And together you are left with performing one act of connection.

Student: Is there any importance to the attitude that I have beforehand towards the Ten, when I sit with them in a workshop?

M. Laitman: Yes, but it doesn't matter, because now with the present conditions, you rise above.

Student: So simply once, the moment you sit in a workshop, forget about..?

M. Laitman: You start anew.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:12) You said before that we should get used to being in concealment. How do I bring myself to get used to the concealment each day anew?

M. Laitman: You work above reason, you accept the way the Creator relates to you, in every place, under any condition, as a good thing, positive. And you're willing to work under all the conditions to be connected to Him.

Student: Is the Creator's attitude, when each time I want to awaken a relation that is closer and closer to Him, can that be only through my closeness to the friends?

M. Laitman: That's the safest, yes, why? Why are you asking?

Student: Recently, we got to participate in an amazing process, a little bit before the congress, two Tens united. And we felt that this process that we took upon ourselves, not only was it above reason, but we received a gift from the Creator. And this whole process that we're now going through in this uniting the two Tens into one Ten, we are already one Ten. Logistically or any way you want to look at it, we're one Ten but we took this process with both hands. And you can see each and every day how this texture that we're building between us anew, seemingly two veteran Tens, we took friends from here, friends from there, and we were united together. This process, doing it anew, you see how you build the Creator here, the nearness to the Creator in this process. It's amazing, He gave us a gift here, and we're grateful for it each and every day. So these questions that I'm asking you, they come from the work we do between us. When we truly, how can we say, each day we ask and we scrutinize, how do we elevate the connection and we feel this connection between us? How do we make it even more significant, more meaningful than what we had in the previous Tens, truly so. 

M. Laitman: Good, continue and succeed.

Question (Women Turkiye 8): (35:50) When does a person begin to enjoy spirituality?

M. Laitman: I would say it depends on the person but let's say from the moment he understands that he is in the spiritual world, but due to his vessels he does not yet discover it. 

Student: (36:23) No English Translation

M. Laitman: Well, if he doesn't pass the barrier, he does not feel spirituality, he doesn't feel his true state. 

Student: Their continuation, how do we know that the pleasure is real or it's spiritual?

M. Laitman: How to know, according to what's revealed.

Student: How can we check it, that it's not corporeal pleasure but actually spiritual? 

M. Laitman: In which vessels do I attain it, in the vessels of bestowal or the vessels of reception? 

Student: So, the moment that I attain the vessels of bestowal, he will already know that this is spiritual pleasure?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Women Turkiye 2): (37:23) I fell into corporeal and spiritual darkness, both. How can I turn this darkness into the shadow of the Creator?

M. Laitman: We need to make efforts to come out of it, clearly, it's what we're learning now as well. To rise above the sensation of this fall and to ascend.

Question (Women Kyiv 7): (38:07) What is playing, according to the spiritual world?

M. Laitman: Playing, according to the spiritual world, is where we constantly have to hold ourselves to bestowing to each other, caring for each other, performing actions of bestowal.

Question (UK): (38:44) The article begins with, I'm passing your letter to the friends in London. So, was there a Kabbalistic group in London?

M. Laitman: This, first of all, took place 50 years ago and there was a group in Gateshead. It's a small city where many Hassadim lived, today also there's some Yeshiva there. Although they do not remember Baal HaSulam or anything really. But Rabash traveled there, as he writes. He writes, I gave them a lesson, and he said, after the lesson, they discussed it amongst themselves. And one of them said that if I didn't study with Rav Desler, then I would have thought that Rabash is speaking nonsense. And Rabash was glad because truly he reached a perception of truth.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:27) The more a person follows the path, the more he feels that he is approaching a lightless tunnel. Then he needs the power of faith, then there's pleasure there, he feels nearness, he feels something, something different, some little light. But suddenly it vanishes, it's swallowed up. The question is: How do you continue in the darkness, adhering to faith?

M. Laitman: Through the environment, there is no other way to do any correction but only if you're in the right environment.

Student: The right environment is my Ten?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Now, we're always working in the Ten, working very intensely. It's a Ten, I'm grateful to the Creator for this Ten. And the question: Is the light felt only in the connection between us or is it felt in the need for faith?

M. Laitman: I didn't understand, the light is felt..?

Student: Is the light that a person, this truth that a person should reach, is that only in the connection between us or is it in the power of faith? How does a person not confuse the two? On the one hand, he's holding on to two different sides. He has the Ten on the one side and the power of faith on the other. The question is: Where is the truth and where is the lie? How do you hold onto the middle, correctly?

M. Laitman: Why should one feel this way, that his connection to the Ten should be together with the vessels of bestowal?

Student: Perhaps I didn't ask correctly, how do you do it, how do you hold it correctly, as you said?

M. Laitman:  I constantly depict them, that they are already in a corrected state. And myself, that I'm seemingly always regressing and I have to be drawn forward with them.

Student: The more you see them as corrected and you need the power of faith to come closer to them, that's the connection between the two?

M. Laitman: Let's say this is the connection.

Student: Sorry for insisting but I just can't understand the matter where there's connection, which is between us, it's something we work on. There are rules that Rabash writes and we apply. And that state where a person is in darkness and he adheres to some strength of faith, some prayer, which sustains him.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: I cannot connect the two, how to connect them?

M. Laitman: Keep going, that's all.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:06) The state of the shadow that a person usually feels, not usually, it's an additional coarseness that a person receives, broken vessels. You answered the friend that in the state of the shadow, well, you need to enjoy it. But if I look at my heart, my will, it doesn't enjoy the state of the shadow at all, despite, intellectually, there's this understanding that you now received an invitation to come closer to the Creator. So where's the joy in the state of the shadow?

M. Laitman: The joy comes out of the awareness, getting to know this force that is pulling you forward. And at the same time it places obstacles, obstructions, on your path because by this you learn how to understand it and how to be connected with it in all the states.

Student: At that moment, there is no joy in the heart, in the moment, there's just the understanding, intellectually. That you need to increase faith about reason, that you need to build the intention to bestow upon that shattered state in order to achieve that.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Kyiv 1): (45:46) What kind of shadow should we yearn for in the Ten?

M. Laitman: We should try to be in a shadow, which is the shadow of faith so that in it, in this shadow, only by the force of faith can we keep going forward, correctly.

Student: What does it mean to be under the shadow of faith?

M. Laitman: That even though I do not receive from the Creator any response, any indication, I, nevertheless, walk in such a way, that I walk in faith.

Student: If I do receive some signs and response from the Creator, should I conceal that from myself, try not to receive anything from Him?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Reader: (47:08) There's another letter, which is the continuation of this one. It's a short one. Maybe we could read it: Letter 12, Part 2. 

Reading Letter: (47:26) Letter 12-2.

To the friends, may they live long,

I have no news and I hope that the Creator will make my way successful.

I am writing to you a summary of the talk I gave to the students of Rav Desler concerning the Sukkah (a hut on the festival of Sukkot), called “shadow of faith.”

A Sukkah means thatch, which is the waste of barn and winery. A thatch is called “shade,” and shade is called “concealment of the face.” In order not to have the bread of shame, we have room for work, meaning that we can engage in Torah and Mitzvot although we feel no flavor or vitality. Naturally, afterwards we can receive the vitality and not blemish the gift, meaning that the gift will not be blemished due to the shame that is present in the receiver.

And before we can receive the vitality of the Torah, we must receive vitality form corporeal things because without vitality it is impossible to live. This is why the Creator has prepared for us reception of vitality from corporeality. This means that vitality is called “light” and “pleasure,” and pleasure is spirituality. It is a rule that there is no light without a Kli (vessel), meaning there is no such thing as pleasure without clothing. For this reason, the whole difference is not in the pleasure, called “light,” but in the clothing, meaning in the Kli, since there is a clothing of falsehood, and clothing of truth.

This is similar to a five-year-old girl playing with a doll. The girl is playing with the doll as though the doll is a real child with feelings. And although the doll does not respond, she talks to it. At the same time, if there is a six month old baby in the house, and he is crying, and the five year old girl is told, “Go play with the real baby and we will benefit as well because the baby will not cry,” she will refuse completely. That is, she cannot derive pleasure from a clothing of truth, but from a clothing of falsehood. But as for the pleasure, we see that the girl is feeling real pleasure.

But when the girl has grown to be eighteen, she must derive pleasure from a clothing of truth. Likewise, before we grow up, we derive pleasure specifically from Lo Lishma (not for Her sake), regarded as “clothing of falsehood.” This is called “shadow,” “concealment,” and then there is room for work, and we derive vitality from false things. Afterwards, when we are rewarded, we receive the light of faith.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:52) It's completely unclear, he says, before we are able to receive the vitality of the Torah, we are forced to receive vitality from corporeal things because without vitality you cannot live. So, what is he saying, that I need to enjoy corporeal things, now, to chase after those, pursue those?

M. Laitman: What are you asking?

Student: He says, look, before being able to receive vitality from the Torah, which is what we're trying to attain, we are forced to receive vitality from corporeal things because without vitality one cannot live.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Here we learn that you need to try to rise above it somehow, to ask for maybe less corporeality, a little bit more Torah, a bit more spirituality. But here he says, no, use it, enjoy corporeality, enjoy your life. And once I do that, I fall from spirituality, I pursue corporeality. Bring me more money, another house. It's said not to build towers and so on, but here he says, no, enjoy life. 

M. Laitman: Where do you see that, I don't see it.

Student: Well, he says it, enjoy your corporeal life because right now you don’t have a light.

M. Laitman: You don't have a light, that's the truth. 

Student: You don't have a vessel also.

M. Laitman: A vessel also, but it doesn't mean that he tells you to go and engage in these external engagements. 

Student: So what is he saying to me here? He says we are forced to receive vitality from corporeal things. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What does he mean? 

M. Laitman: We must, meaning a person is forced. 

Student: Meaning?

M. Laitman: Meaning a person doesn't want it but he has no choice.

Student: We understand that it's a falsehood, right? He says there's clothing of falsehood and clothing of truth. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: You understand the fear is when you start to engage with corporeality, you're dragged into corporeality. So what happens with spirituality? What happens to the truth here, you understand? 

M. Laitman: You need to guard yourself so you won't be drawn away to... 

Student: That's the difficulty we have. I want to ask you a question, it was said in the beginning here, why are we coming to study here? There was a question in the preparation for the lesson: With what intention do you come to study? And I started thinking, I actually started thinking, why am I coming here to study? I started thinking, look, maybe so I get more money at work, my wife will be better, my children will be better, that my daughter will end her army service, healthy and well. Is that what I need to think about?

M. Laitman: Well, you see that this is how it is.

Student: But it shouldn't be that way, it's falsehood, right, because why did I come here? To adhere to the Creator, and suddenly I get these thoughts.

M. Laitman: So now you see that you didn't come to study for that.

Student: Exactly, so what do you need to think about when coming to study in the preparation for the lesson?

M. Laitman: So that the Creator will change your ways and you will see which way you're truly going.

Student: Meaning not to ask for anything corporeal, right? I understand that you need to come here and not to ask for anything corporeal. You need to, if not attaining the Creator, at least you need to attain connection between the friends, right? But the question is what is truth and what is falsehood in my thoughts when I come here to study in the morning lesson?

M. Laitman: You've been with us for dozens of years.

Student: Correct. 

M. Laitman: And you always have this complaint. If you see that you fell into an incorrect place, here, they don't teach what you're looking for, go and find another place.

Student: Right but I know that here it's the truth, I know, I know it is.

M. Laitman: So how come you're not suitable for it?

Student: No, the problem is in me, so what do I need to think about here when I come to prepare to the lesson? About the corporeal matters, which he says are falsehood, or the truth, spirituality? So for what do I need to aim, because he says corporeality is also part of the matter. I don't know how to place these things, it's difficult, right?

M. Laitman: For me, it's not difficult, for me it's not difficult because there's nothing you can do about it.

Student: Okay, so let's put it this way: When you come to the morning lesson, excuse me for asking, but what do you think about, first of all, the students? You, what do you think, as our teacher, our Rav?

M. Laitman: I think, well, ask our friend. 

Student: The friend? 

M. Laitman: Yes, the doctor. 

Student: The doctor? 

M. Laitman: He comes to me every morning at 6:10, 6:15, that's it. 

Student: What do you mean that is it, what does he do?

M. Laitman: During this time, I already finished drinking my tea, I eat a sandwich and I'm ready to go. And then I come with him, I come down here.

Student: What motivates you to get up every morning? What motivates you so I can take that as an example.

M. Laitman: First of all, I must. Just as I received this path from Rabash, I must pass it on to my students.

Student: So the example I should take from you, essentially, is to come here for the friends, right? Not to think about myself at all, I'm trying to reach the right answer here. So I'm trying to think that I'm coming here for the friends, not for my own sake.

M. Laitman: Yes, this is what it means, for yourself, for my own sake.

Student: What do you mean, for myself?

M. Laitman: Yes, because this is truly for your spirituality.

Student: Okay, so the bottom line here is that I need to think a pure thought, to try to think a pure thought. Thinking about the friends, that I'm coming here for them, and not what I attain. Well, is that spiritual, is that the truth?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:40) In the past, once you gave an example, which I remember. About a queen, where if she could pass up on all the preparation, preparing food for the baby, she would pass up on that. But the pleasure of actually feeding the baby, she would not pass up on that. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: The question is: What is pleasure from bestowal?

M. Laitman: The pleasure from bestowal is that I bestow to someone who is close to me, someone who is important for me.

Student: It is work, right, I toil in Torah and commandments?

M. Laitman: The work is in order to acquire the importance. 

Student: Alright, so that's the building of the vessels.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: That's the shadow.

M. Laitman: Well.

Student: But he says, not to think that there's no pleasure in Lishma. So, what is the pleasure in Lishma? 

M. Laitman: To work Lishma. 

Student: This is exertion and toil, he works, he buys the ingredients and so on.

M. Laitman: But again, because it's the one that you are doing it for, it's important for you. 

Student: If he's important to you, then it's pleasure, already. So there's a gap here, no? 

M. Laitman: No, without pleasure it's impossible to live, however the question is: From what? 

Student: What is the pleasure of Lishma from? 

M. Laitman: In that I bestow to the Creator. 

Student: One still does not bestow upon the Creator, he's still constructing the vessels. 

M. Laitman: Nevertheless, it's from the side of bestowal to the Creator.

Student: How, when he's still in the shadow, still under concealment, still lacking taste in his vessels of reception. How does he enjoy the process of now building vessels, how does he enjoy it? 

M. Laitman: Because it is all done in the direction of the Creator. 

Student: This is what one must understand?

M. Laitman: He does it. 

Student: How does he feel pleasure, he says, not to think that there's no pleasure in bestowal. So how does he feel pleasure? I can understand that, yes, it's a necessary part of the process, it's important, without that I won't have anything to give. But it's still a stage where he's toiling and exerting. What does he enjoy, what does he feel? Either he's satisfied with this kind of intellectual light, intellectual pleasure..? 

M. Laitman: No, light passes through him to the one that he intends for. And he feels the construction of the Partzufim that the light performs in him.

Reader: We'll continue to the next part of the lesson, “Preface To The Sulam Commentary,” and a song.

M. Laitman: Please. 

Song: (01:02:38)