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

Daily Morning Lesson: May 6, 2026

Part 1: A lesson based on the articles of Rabash
Rabash. Article No. 19, 1986. Concerning Joy - Part 1

Original lesson date: 02/07/2003

Reader: (00:33) Hello, dear friends. In the first part of the lesson, we will be reading the article “Concerning Joy" from the beginning to the words "he thinks to whom am I speaking now?"

Reading: (01:01) Concerning Joy

Article No. 19, 1986

The Mishnah says (Taanit, 26), “From the beginning of Av we diminish joy. From the beginning of Adar we increase joy. If he is deliberating with idol-worshippers, let him judge it on Adar.” We should understand the meaning of increasing joy and diminishing joy. After all, joy is a result of some reason that caused him joy, and we can only diminish or increase the reasons. Therefore, we should know which reason will bring us joy.

Our sages, who told us to increase joy, referred to joy of Kedusha [holiness/sanctity]. Accordingly, we should consider to which reason they told us to refer so it would bring us joy of Kedusha. We should also understand what they said, “If he is deliberating with idol-worshippers, let him judge it on Adar.” After all, we are in the land of Israel, and there are several towns where there is not even one gentile. And even if we find a gentile in town, what should be the deliberation with him?

It seems that judging the idol-worshippers on Adar is a perpetual custom and not an incidental matter. That is, if there is a rare incident where Israel is deliberating with a gentile he will go and judge him on the month of Adar. Therefore, we need to understand to which idol-worshippers they are referring that they are deliberating with.

We see that there is an order of two manners in our prayers: 1) an order of songs and praises to the Creator, 2) an order of prayers and litanies. We also see that the two are opposite. This is so because naturally, when someone asks one’s friend to give him something, the extent of the request depends on the extent of his need for it. If the thing he is asking his friend for is something that touches his heart and necessary, to the extent of the necessity for the matter, he tries to do everything he can to obtain what he is seeking.

Accordingly, when a person prays to the Creator to grant his wish, he should see that his prayer is from the bottom of the heart, meaning to feel his deficiency. To the extent of his feeling, his prayer can be more sincere. Thus, his prayer will not be as lip-service but rather from the bottom of the heart.

To feel his deficiency, he must see the truth, to see that he has a great lack and he is an empty Kli [vessel] as far as matters of Kedusha are concerned. When he feels that he is the worst person in the world, he can say that his prayer is honest because he feels that his deficiency is the greatest in the world and there is no one who is like him.

Opposite that is the second discernment in the order of our prayer, meaning psalms, songs, and praises. We see that usually the amount of gratitude that one gives to another is measured by the benefit he has received from his friend. For example, when someone helps another obtain something small that he needed, the gratitude is small, as well.

But we see that if someone gives someone a job when jobs are hard to find, he has been jobless for months and is indebted to the grocery store, and the store owner has already told him he must stop selling groceries, he has given up on searching for loans to provide for his necessities, and he suddenly meets a person whom he wanted to ask for a loan, but that person offers him a job with good conditions and tells him, “Why look for loans? I’ll give you a job. I heard that you are trustworthy, so although I have many workers, I don’t have anyone I can trust. I will pay you well so you can pay your debts quickly, so why should you need a loan from me?”

We can picture the gratitude he would give to this person. He does not need to thank him verbally because his whole body thanks him, as it is written, “All my bones shall say.” If we picture a person who was sentenced to life imprisonment, and another person came and liberated him, what gratitude would all his organs give to his savior?

It follows that if one wishes to give high praise to the Creator so it becomes as “All my bones shall say, ‘Lord, who is like You, Who delivers the afflicted from him who is too strong for him,’” then one should picture oneself as the happiest person in the world, if he wishes to give great praise to the Creator. Otherwise, if he feels that something is still missing, that he wants the Creator to help him, then the gratitude he gives to the Creator will not be as “All my bones shall say.”

Therefore, we see two complete opposites in the order of our prayer, which brings up the question, “What can one do when he sees that they are so remote from one another?” Normally, we see the oppositeness in many things. One example is the order of lights that illuminate in the Kelim [vessels]. It is known that there is an inverse relation between Kelim and lights. In the Kelim the big and fine Kelim appear first. That is, Keter appears first and the Sefira [singular of Sefirot] Malchut appears last. In the lights it is the opposite: the small ones appear first: first Malchut, and finally Keter. It is known that when we speak from the perspective of the Kelim we say that the order is KHB ZON, and when we speak from the perspective of the lights, we say that the order is NRNHY.

Another example is that Baal HaSulam said that we see oppositeness in the order of man’s work. On the one hand, our sages said (Avot, Chapter 4), “Be very, very humble.” On the other hand, they said, “And his heart was high in the ways of the Lord.” That is, if he really humbles himself before each and every one, he will not be able to overcome those who mock his walking in the path of the Creator, since he humbles himself before everyone. Instead, at that time he should say, “And his heart was high in the ways of the Lord.” That is, he should not be impressed by anyone who tells him, “This work that you took upon yourself fits skillful and brave people, who are accustomed to overcoming obstacles and received good upbringing. That is, since they were little they have been accustomed to giving the work of the Creator the prime importance. But you are not like that. You should settle for being an important landlord, meaning see that your children learn Torah and the work of the Creator, and then you will be an important landlord and your daughters will marry disciples of Torah. It is inappropriate for you, middle-aged man, to begin to walk in the path of the work that leads to Torah Lishma [for Her sake], and completely not for self-benefit. Get off this path and do not pine for matters beyond your level.”

At that time he has no choice but not to be impressed with them and keep the words of our sages, “Let him not be ashamed before the scoffers.” It follows that then he must go by the way of pride. But on the other hand, he must keep “Be very, very humble.” However, according to the rule, “There are no two opposites in one carrier,” how can both be in one person? There are many other examples of two opposites in the work of the Creator, but there can be two opposites in one carrier at two times, meaning one at a time.

The root of the matter is as it is written in the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” (items 10-11), “How is it possible that the chariot of impurity and Klipot [shells/peels] would emerge from His holiness, since it is at the other end of His holiness?”

He says there: “This will to receive, which is the very essence of the souls by creation, is Tuma’a [impurity] and Klipot. This is so because the disparity of form in them would separate them from Him. And in order to mend that separation, which lies on the Kli [vessel] of the souls, He has created all the worlds and separated them into two systems, which are the four worlds ABYA of Kedusha, and opposite them the four worlds ABYA of Tuma’a. He imprinted the desire to bestow in the system of the ABYA of Kedusha, removed the will to receive for themselves from them, and placed it in the system of ABYA of Tuma’a.”

He also says there: “How will those two things, which are opposite in form from one another, be corrected? For this reason, the reality of this corporeal world was created, meaning a place where there is a body and a soul, and a time of corruption and a time of correction. For the body, which is the will to receive for itself, extends from its root in the Thought of Creation, through the system of the worlds of Tuma’a, and remains under the authority of that system for the first thirteen years. This is the time of corruption. Afterwards begins the time of correction, which is after thirteen years. By engaging in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds], when he engages in order to bestow contentment upon his Maker, he begins to purify the will to receive for himself imprinted in him, and slowly turns it to be in order to bestow.”

It turns out that as soon as the creature is created, he consists of two opposites: 1) vessels of reception, 2) vessels of bestowal. There is no greater oppositeness than this. These two opposites come in one carrier, but one at a time, and it seems as though there is a middle line that contains both of them: 1) the will to receive, 2) the will to bestow.

The middle line contains both of them when the will to receive is included in the will to bestow, called “receiving in order to bestow.” It follows that the two forces are included in this middle line, meaning reception and bestowal together.

Accordingly, the answer to our question, “How can there be in man’s work complete wholeness and deficiency in utter lowliness in the same carrier?” is that this can be in two times. That is, one needs to divide the order of one’s work into two ways: 1) One way will be on the path of “right,” called “wholeness.” This is so because when one begins to turn, one should first turn to the right, called “wholeness,” and then to the left. It is so because man can walk specifically on two legs, whereas on one leg you cannot speak of walking.

“Right” means wholeness because when one comes to take upon oneself the work of the Creator, the order is that one should assume the burden of the kingdom of heaven “as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load.” The “ox” refers to the mind, called “ox,” from the verse, “Let the ox know its owner,” referring to faith above reason.

A “donkey” refers to the heart, called “donkey,” as in, “and a donkey, its master’s crib,” referring to self-love. Therefore, when saying, “to work in order to bestow contentment upon one’s maker,” he regards it as a load, and he always wants to throw off his shoulders. He is always searching what he can eat from this work, meaning what pleasure his will to receive might derive.

When he takes upon himself this work he says, “I should see for myself, meaning always check if I am not deceiving myself that I am on the right path, that it is the proper one, meaning keeping Torah and Mitzvot because of the commandment of the Creator and not for any other reasons. However, I am keeping the words of our sages, who said, ‘One should always engage in Torah and Mitzvot, even if Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], since from Lo Lishma he will come to Lishma [for Her sake].’ Thus, why should I think whether I am keeping Torah and Mitzvot with all the intentions so that everything will be for the Creator?

“However, I have a great privilege that the Creator has given me a thought and desire to keep something in Torah and Mitzvot. According to the rule, with something important we do not regard the quantity but the quality. Rather, even if it is a small amount, if the quality is what matters, even something small of high quality is very important. For this reason, since the Creator has commanded us through Moses to keep Torah and Mitzvot, I do not care how much I can keep it. Rather, even if I have the worst and foulest intentions, in the act I do observe as much as my body permits.

“And although I am incapable of overcoming the desires of the body, I am still glad that at least I have the strength to keep the commandments of the Creator in some way because I believe that everything comes by Providence. That is, the Creator has given me the desire and strength to observe Torah and Mitzvot, and I thank Him for this because I see that not everyone have been given this privilege of observing the Mitzvot of the Creator.” He should say that he cannot even value the greatness and importance of keeping the Creator’s commandment even without any intention.

We can compare it to a child who does not want to eat, who derives no pleasure from eating, so the parents force the child to eat whether he wants to or not. And although the child has no pleasure, in the end, even by coercion, it helps the child, as well, so he can live and grow. However, it would certainly be better if the child wanted to eat by himself, meaning if he enjoyed the food. But even without pleasure and completely by coercion it still benefits the child.

We should say likewise in serving the Creator. Even if we keep Torah and Mitzvot by coercion, meaning we force ourselves to keep and our bodies resist anything that is of Kedusha [holiness/sanctity], still, the act he performs does its thing, and by this he can come to a state where he has a desire to observe. At that time, all the things he did are not in vain. Rather, everything he did enters Kedusha.

We can interpret this with what our sages said about the verse, “He will sacrifice it before the Lord according to his will” (Arachin, 21). “Our sages said, ‘Will sacrifice it’ indicates that he is forced. But it is written, ‘according to his will.’ How is this so? He is forced until he says, ‘I want.’”

This means that the words “before the Lord, according to his will” bewildered our sages. It means that everything he does with regard to bringing himself close to the Creator is not regarded as an act if he does not want to work for the Creator, which is called “according to the Lord’s will.” Instead, that person is still unable to do things to benefit the Creator, which means that his deeds are worthless, as though he has not done anything because they are still not according to the Creator’s will.

However, it is written, “He will sacrifice it.” This means that he is forced, meaning even by coercion. That is, when he does not want to work for the Creator it is still called “sacrifice.” But this is perplexing, since he does not want to sacrifice the offering to the Creator, so the beginning of the verse contradicts its end.

They said about this: “He is forced until he says, ‘I want.’” That is, this follows the rule that our sages said, “One should always engage in Torah and Mitzvot even Lo Lishma, since from Lo Lishma he comes to Lishma” (Pesachim 50b). This means that by subjugating himself each time, although the body does not agree to work for the Creator because where he does not see self-gratification he cannot do a thing.

Still, he does not notice the body’s complaints and says to his body: “Know that even by force, you are doing the Creator’s commandments. It will not help you to resist the work. It is said that practical Mitzvot have the power to bring one to Lishma.” This is the meaning of “He is forced,” meaning that he forces himself and does not listen to any logic and reason that the body tries to explain to him, but tells it, “In the end he will achieve Lishma.” This is the meaning of “until he says, ‘I want.’” That is, from Lo Lishma we come to Lishma, which is called “I want.”

Therefore, each time he remembers while performing some act of Kedusha, great joy immediately awakens in him that he was rewarded with having some contact with matters that the Creator commanded him to do. Although he knows that everything he does is Lo Lishma, he is still profoundly happy since our sages have promised us that from Lo Lishma we come to Lishma.

He is even happier because our sages said, “He who repents from love, sins become for him as merits, and he who repents from fear, sins become for him as mistakes.” It follows that when he is rewarded with working Lishma, all the Mitzvot he had performed Lo Lishma will enter Kedusha and will be as important as though he had performed them Lishma.

Thus, even while he is still working Lo Lishma, it is as important to him as though he is working Lishma. That is, he thinks that everything he does is certainly more important than sins and are bound to be corrected into being good, and he regards everything he does, even the smallest thing, as a great Mitzva [commandment]. It is as our sages said (Avot, Chapter 2), “Be careful with a lesser commandment as with a greater one, for you do not know the reward for the commandments.”

For this reason, when he calculates the works he is doing, whose Mitzvot he is observing, and when he says some words of Torah, he tells himself, “Whose Torah am I learning?” And when he blesses for pleasure, such as before drinking or before eating bread, he thinks, “To whom am I speaking now?”

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Reader: (31:05) We will now continue to a recorded lesson from the 7th of February, 2003.

M. Laitman: We read the article, Concerning Joy from writings of Rabash. We live in a world that is not changing; it seems to us that everything is changing around us but in truth it's not changing – what's changing is all within us. The upper light is in complete rest and it shines to the collective soul which is either in the form of Malchut of Ein Sof or the soul of Adam, Adam HaRishon. This light is at complete rest, meaning it has a constant pressure on this vessel called, the soul, so that this vessel will improve, will adapt, and reach the end of its correction. And ripening the best possible state that can be imagined, what the Creator determined as good. All the changes are not in the light, which pressures the Kli consistently, but the vessels and parts of the vessels, which constantly change and improve and undergo stages. And the inner impression of the vessel from the light that keeps working on it regularly; because the impression of the vessel is changing and the vessel thinks the world is changing. It's the inner feeling of the vessel that is called, the world, or worlds because there are five parts for the vessel, that's why there are five worlds. From here, we should understand that all of our feeling depends on the relationship between us and the upper light which is at complete rest. If we want to change our feeling, change our state, then accordingly, we have to change towards Him. The sages who already achieved the good state tell us that from states where you feel good and wholeness and eternity. They say that the more the vessel is compatible with the light, the better it feels, the vessel feels better. And they give us advice for how to reach such states. The result we need to achieve is joy, he also writes about this in Introduction to TES – that it's not sufficient to just reach high degrees meaning to reach the Torah, the light but the Torah of life. That a person will feel that it gives them life, that it gives them complete satisfaction in all desires and everything that he reveals. To reach these changes, except for a person who is already in this world, meaning that he is one part of this great vessel and, towards it, he needs to do the work. This man needs to think about how he can truly change himself, to bring himself to a complete match to the light and the best possible feeling.

(35:12) To begin with, he goes for that mission because he feels what is the point in life? There is no point, and the sages advise those who already reached the reception of the light in full, which then means they are called, Kabbalists. Then, they advise him how to make the corrections, and against that improvement that a person needs to make on himself, he has all kinds of disturbances, they divide to inner and outer disturbances. The inner disturbances are man's desires by the nature of his will to receive, they don't want to move unless there's a clear pleasure and then the will to receive is naturally drawn to it. But if the pleasure is hidden then, the will to receive can't move and that's how it's built – there's nothing to do about it. These disturbances are inner disturbances and then there's outer disturbances. Outer disturbances come from the rest of the pieces of the Malchut, the other pieces of the soul of Adam HaRishon, the rest of the souls which are clothed in bodies and exist around that person who wants to advance towards the goal. They say, what do you need? Before this, you need to do all kinds of actions to carry out Torah and Mitzvot, study the Shas and Poskim – Talmud and commentators – and do all kinds of good deeds and correct things. And then, maybe, maybe not. It's not for you, be like us; the public opinion influences the person and also works as a disturbance making it hard for him to move. A person needs to learn how he overcomes these two disturbances, internal and external, as one. Precisely by overcoming these two types of disturbances, he grows, these are his broken vessels. Both his inner vessels which tell him that they don't want to move towards the goal. They don't see any benefit in the goal and also his external vessels, that the rest of the souls of Adam HaRishon, it's all his vessels that he needs to assemble to himself, one by one, and incorporate with them or include them in himself, and thus advance. This means that if he attaches his vessel to that idea of reaching the purpose of creation and as well as attaching the vessels of the world. That means he's making the corrections that are up to him to do and he reaches the state of the end of correction. The end of correction of each and every one is that from his point of view of the soul, and towards the rest of the souls of Adam HaRishon, he took all of the soul of Adam HaRishon in terms of what he had to do and take care of and correct it and he corrected it on his part in full. We have to see these disturbances, both inner and outer, as useful disturbances for corrections and not to erase them but, rather, work with them efficiently.

(39:07) Rabash writes here that there are two things regarding our approach to what happens to us. On the one hand, one's heart shall be prideful in the path of the Creator. Where does he write it? Right. He shouldn't be ashamed of the scoffers, what does it mean? Rabash always said that he envies little children: We would go with him, I went with him to, at least twice a week, to all kinds of weddings. He would be invited and I would have to accompany him – it was really terrible, all of those weddings, but what can you do? Everyone's kind of important there, they're all inflated and, you know. Besides the little children, the little children run between everyone's legs and they don't care about anything, they push everyone around. And so he always said, we need to be like these little kids! They don't care about who they're pushing and where they're going and who they're bumping into. They have some goal in how they play games there in the wedding hall and that's it. That's how we should relate to all the great ones; meaning, if you want to advance on the path, you have a connection with the Creator, you have to take the direction from Him. And aim towards Him and not anyone's mind – this could seem a little dangerous but, certainly, we don't want to be landlords – we want to follow the reason of the Torah. The reason of Torah is opposite to the reason of hosts or the reason of the landlords. We need to not listen to anyone, not inner disturbances, not outer disturbances, all kinds of advice, but only to follow the point in the heart which pushes me exactly to the goal, and from the point in the heart, I clarify the goal.

(41:32) It says in general that there's no coercion in spirituality and we are forbidden to surrender to any view or any advice. There's only an obligation upon me that says one is coerced until he says, I want; meaning, when I myself will freely scrutinize the goal and then work on my will to receive. Also, the other part of the sentence, One's heart shall be prideful in the path of the Creator and he shouldn't be ashamed of the scoffers. And the other side – the Creator – that one should be lowly, that a person needs to be lowly. What does it mean lowly? That if he already has a point in the heart that pushes him in a spiritual direction, he needs to be with all of the desires, with all of his beastly knowledge of this world. He has to be in submission towards this point that attracts him to spirituality because it is a part of God from above. It is the upper degree and, then, he has to submit all of his other qualities towards that. In that respect, he needs to be lowly; also with respect to his society. That he chose and by which he advances to spirituality. That the reason of the society about the greatness of the Creator, again in a very sharp and selective scrutinized way, the reason of society about the greatness of the Creator is what a person has to accept as his own reason. And follow that because it's the only chance that his body will move towards the goal, meaning to submit himself towards that point that chooses spirituality, towards the point in the heart. And to submit himself towards the reason of the society which says that the Creator and his goal is greater than all other goals. Then, a person certainly has all the data in his hands to come through the entire path and reach the goal. We'll read the other part next time, you read well! Any questions?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:25) How can a person tell at any point if he's surrendering before the opinion of the society in which the Creator, the greatness of the Creator truly appears, or if he's being forced and it's not related to the Creator, really?

M. Laitman: I need the society only for one thing, for one thing: that it will provide me, the society needs to provide me, greatness of the Creator because He is concealed. Instead of that, the Creator is concealed and He gave instead of that the force of the society. If I work towards the society, if I work towards Him and His greatness would be revealed and the pleasure from that would be revealed. Then, I would only work from vessels of reception and I would never be able to come out of that. Like Baal HaSulam writes, that it's like a thief running ahead of everyone and chasing, catch the thief. The will to receive would lie to me as if it's working – Look I'm longing for the Creator, I'm practicing the Mitzvot, I do everything I can, of course it's for Him – and I would never be able to even recognize that I'm in a will to receive. Just look at the whole world, some people make a lot of effort but they just can't see because they don't have the point of Bina opposite the point of Malchut. There's no point in the heart so they can't determine from this point that these actions are states within the will to receive. Like Baal HaSulam writes in the Introduction to TES, that we found a few students that Zohar didn't help them in their engagement in Torah and Mitzvot.

Therefore, instead of the Creator being hidden, He gave me the power of the society, and in the society as much as I can, as much as I can put in the labor, I'm not told to come out of myself, I'm to be incapable of that. But the more I labor and I'm willing to receive from the society inspiration from the greatness of the Creator, what they tell me. And they, too, don't know about it but they simply provide me with that rumor, right? Then I have the force to work towards the Creator even though He is concealed towards the goal. We see this in our time, in our days, how the human works for such abstract goals that basically have no realistic, logical basis but he still works on that, why? Because society gives importance to that. Now, only towards that I need to submit myself, but that includes many, many actions in it: I need to submit myself towards the society, I need to feel that my society is greater, more important; I need to sell them and give them, and buy from them my reason – that they will provide me with the importance of the Creator. And I need to sell that to them and buy from them my reason that they will provide me the importance of the Creator. There's a very multifaceted partnership, here, and it's all included in the term of the importance of the Creator that the society needs to provide each and every one of the friends.

Student: If, in the society, there are various customs, laws?

M. Laitman: All of our customs and laws should be determined only from that goal; whatever is not related to this goal, we can simply throw away. And whatever is closer to this goal, we should kind of draw it like a pyramid: the closer it is, the more important it has to be. If there are certain means and reasons and ways, tools to increase the importance of the Creator in each and every one's eyes. Then, that means it becomes important. Then, it seems to us that we are actually very strange, our society is strange and different from all the other societies. This is called, The reason of Torah is opposite to the reason of the landlords, and, Don't be ashamed before the scoffers – what can you do? The goal is what determines it.

Student: What is the point in the heart?

M. Laitman: The point in the heart, we have such a creature called human in this world, right? Take this fellow, there is still vegetative, animate and speaking. What's speaking? That besides living, he also goes, blah, blah, blah – that's it, speaking. Some more, some less with their own will to receive. What's special in this speaking degree is that he has internally the preparation for adhesion with the Creator. To reveal the world that he's in, and this speaking goes through development to reveal the world that he's in. This development, he undergoes it through many life cycles. In each new life cycle, he's more important, he's wiser and more developed than before in all kinds of levels and aspects and emotions and inner vessels. Until he comes to a state where, suddenly, he begins to see that this world has got simply nothing in it. There's such a feeling that drops onto the person like a kind of despair from this world. This life is worthless, I don't have a point in life, what's the purpose of life? If that doesn't come from a mental illness or some kind of crisis at work or in love or things like that and the nonsense that people have. Things which later passes but if it's a true serious despair from all the pleasures of this world; and a person also checks after he has this kind of feeling. He also still enters all kinds of engagements in this world, he wants to see himself being filled by all kinds of providers of pleasure, right? Money, honor, knowledge, sex, all kinds of things, and ultimately, through all of these attempts, he comes to a point where there's really nothing to be filled by here. Meaning something is still missing for me, he feels himself, it's like a curse, can't feel taste in life, something is still missing. He could be very successful in various things but internally he feels like he's just doing things externally, but inside there's like something dead, something empty. That feeling, that emptiness, that empty point within the heart is essentially a new desire which doesn't belong to this world. It's a desire that can be filled only if a person feels the upper world – or light, as we call it or the Creator, doesn't matter how you call it – then, that point, it begins to evolve. It demands from the person each time to develop it, and he doesn't know how and he's miserable, and he wanders around and he gets thrown to all kinds of things, could take a few more life cycles. Until he finds some place where he feels, Oh, there's others like me here, that are kind of, that are kind of—and there's something in the words he hears, that there here could be some fulfillment. That he has reached some provider, some means, let's say, no, not provider but the means. And that, here, I can fulfill myself through this. Then, that point begins to develop more and more through the right study, through the right method and this is called, the point of Bina, a spiritual force. The spiritual force gradually grows within the heart, the heart, itself, is egoistic, it wants to enjoy this world. And the point in the heart, as if, breaks into the heart from the upper world. If that point grows then, it begins to disturb the heart, as if this world, there's nothing more, that much more to demand from it. He begins to be a little bit, you know, even negligent of his work, of his family, other things. Because the point of the heart draws him to something else, what can he do? He develops until, if he truly invests in it. The problem is that there are people who are living with both of these forces, this world and the next world, the heart and in the point in the heart. And they can continue and suffer like that, poor guys, you know. It's like there's a person who can come out of his state but, you know, he kind of despaired and he needs to be pushed. That's why there's a group, that's why there's books, and you need several means. Of course, one person on his own cannot do it, there's no argument about that. There are special individuals who received the ability to do it because of special assistance from above. So don't rely on a miracle, it's written, what is possible is to add forces from the group. That they will carry you and push you, and then you, when you also have good times and awakening, you'll push them and carry them. And, thus, in a mutual way you can reach it but in a way that we truly use that force of assistance from others. Therefore, you have to be in the group and you have to be in collaboration towards the goal; and not just, you know, having some picnics together, that's clear, right? If you do that, then you succeed.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:07) The point in the heart, it's not a perception, it's a desire?

M. Laitman: It's a desire, the point in the heart is a desire, it's not a perception. It's not intellect, our heart is a desire, the point in the heart is a deeper desire. It's a part of the spiritual desire that a person will later acquire, this is what's called AHP of the upper one and then there's various names for it, alright?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:09) In what place, all those who we call the landlords, inanimate of holiness, in what place do they have this feeling that there's something other than the point in the heart? How do they even feel that there is a different reality?

M. Laitman: I don't know your question exactly, maybe your question is this, but it's a question from the intellect, it's not about us. You say this: There's many people in the world who feel some attitude towards something above this world. They call it spirituality, they believe all kinds of things and forces and gods, maybe, right? All kinds of, and people who belong to religions of all kinds or belief systems; or just, maybe, people who don't relate themselves to a certain kind of religion or something. But they just kind of feel that there's some forces, they believe all kinds of actions or abilities that other people can have or do, like evil eye, magnetic forces, all kinds of things like that. They feel that, too, through the point in the heart or not, what's the difference between people who feel all kinds of things and all kinds of people too, both religious and non-religious and just people who believe some forces of nature or something and that point in the heart? Whoever feels the point in the heart will never be able to receive pleasure from some kind of clothing, meaning like some sort of magicians or special treatments that some people do or all kinds of drawings, of course, or photos. He can't clothe his goal, what he's yearning for – godliness – in something that can be depicted in the mind. He has to come to recognition of the fulfillment within this spiritual vessel that he has received. Now, how does a person know? All kinds of people come to me, you know, that they open books, and fortune telling, or all kinds of—they claim they exist in the sensation of the upper world. They hear all kinds of things from there through inner hearing, I'm not talking about mentally ill people. And they have all kinds of techniques and all kinds of details. Now, I can't convince them whether it's point in the heart or not point in the heart – is that okay or not? So, I just don't come in contact with them, I'm saying it's not my area. You want to study the Study of the Ten Sefirot? Go ahead. No? Goodbye? Why? To me it doesn't matter, I speak to them very concisely and the rest is not important to me, I just kind of cut it really quick – TES, yes or no?

So, where do they, nevertheless, get this inspiration from something that is unknown, where do they feel this unknown? Because beasts don't feel that, maybe not, maybe yes, but it seems to us that they don't and people do. These things come to the person through external vessels that we have. We have inner vessels which are called sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, right? Five vessels where we have perception vessels where we perceive this world and it's called inner vessels. Meaning what we perceive in them, we can measure, we can check, we can criticize, inspect, and create a science out of it. From each sense, we can also use devices to expand its range of perception and so on, so these are our inner vessels. And other than that, we also have external vessels that we can't really supervise and control. Some people can control them, some less, some not at all. These are vessels of, you know, we call it all kinds of subconscious feelings. Our conscious part goes through the five senses which the brain scrutinizes and rearranges and inspects. But the subconscious means what doesn't enter those senses but goes through a more external sense, that's it. Like, a person can have, I don't know how to call it, like intuition, and yes you know, there's all kinds of things like that. If you look at some Bedouin people from the Negev, from the south, they even feel things, you know, in a certain sense, you know, even the army uses them as lookers. There's all kinds of things, you know, there's many aspects of where people in our world who can heal through all kinds of energies of our body, magnetism, biology, and so on. But all of these energies are kind of bioenergies – it doesn't belong to spirituality, it belongs to our external vessels, our beastly external vessels. There's beasts and animals who actually have it more developed than humans. You know, when they can feel earthquakes coming, or wind or rain or—through all kinds of signs, you understand? There are even more primitive people who are more tied to nature, who can really influence you from a thousand miles away.

So, for us, too, if you're connected to some person, you feel that something happened to them even if they're a thousand kilometers away. But these are beastly vessels on the level of this world, it doesn't belong to the point in the heart. It can be developed through all kinds of techniques. And let's not delude ourselves that this is something that can fulfill us or make our lives truly better, we see that at the end it doesn't happen. Even if you know the future, it's not going to help you, you can't change the future. Changing the future, you can already do from above, to feel it a little bit, like animals feel that there's going to be an earthquake in three days or four days. You're not going to run away from it, though; if you run away from it, you'll receive what you deserve in a different way. When you run away, you're already included in the plan, it's included in the plan, you understand? The upper degree, we can't run away from it but to rise to it and make changes, there. What does it mean to make changes? That you exist there, and then you're changing, what does it mean to make changes? You can't rise to the upper degree and make changes that will happen on the lower degree. Every degree exists in itself, but if you rise, you rise, then you have another life there. We don't need to be too impressed from all those things and versus those who have a true point in the heart. One feels that other than that point, he has nothing – no hands or legs or tongue or anything that can influence his fate besides that point in the heart, only. But until you get there, until you really clean all of that noise and dirt and these layers over the point in the heart. And then you see that all fortune-telling and magicians and all kinds of tricks and all kinds of spells, you see that it doesn't belong to that. And only that point itself, that desire, clean desire towards the Creator – the reater that is with respect to the point in the heart, then it can faster and more directly cling to Him – that's its source and fulfillment. And a person goes through all this work of cleaning and correction, it takes time.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:58) About what you're saying, if someone who studies Kabbalah has no need to perform that?

M. Laitman: I don't know what's a person who becomes religious. A person who becomes religious feels some sort of an awakening to belong to, say, faith; we call it common people's faith, you know. I don't want to say beastly, let's just say common.

Student: He feels it in his external vessels, or is he convinced to do it with external vessels? Is it something he feels?

M. Laitman: It's in the feeling of each and every one, it's in our heart to believe that there is some upper force, that there is something that determines his faith. It typically comes from fear, fear of the unknown. And then, people, how to say it, build for themselves a certain system that can answer all their expectations, all of the needs to satisfy their reason. Meaning that there is something that responds to what I do and so on; and that belongs to every man and even are in the world, so to speak, all people. It doesn't necessarily belong just to our nation, even primitive nations develop these things to themselves. A person cannot live without that, there's all kinds of deficiencies that need to be fulfilled for us, and that happens through all kinds of rituals and actions and what we call customs. Rabash called these things customs, whatever a person does in this world, not from the point in the heart with a screen towards the upper light, he called it customs, customs of people. You see what people made out of all these things. In the Jewish customs, of course, there is a spiritual root that a person who is walking towards the goal, and he carries out these customs, then they remind him about the actions he truly needs to do. They, as if awaken him to know what is the true action I need to perform in my heart, which is called, let's say, to differentiate between dairy and meat. So what is it in me, in my heart, that belongs to meat and to dairy? But it's not about meat and dairy in this world, right? It's desires that belong to the category – let's say meat and dairy, the right line and the left line – that I need to separate between them, distinguish between them. And in such a way make corrections over the eating, this eating and that eating, meaning receiving the light of Hochma, receiving the light of Hassadim, and so on.

Kabbalists determined these customs, so then the people can have them, in order to advance the people towards the true realization. But we went out to exile, that's the problem, we've lost connection between the corporeal existence and the spiritual existence. We went out to exile, and that means that thing is now hidden from us, and for 2,000 years now, we've been carrying out these Mitzvot – calling them Mitzvot – it's not Mitzvot, we mistakenly call these actions Mitzvot. These Mitzvot are the spiritual actions, and these customs only hint at them. But due to the concealment, the common people began to call them Mitzvot, then call the customs that way, because, and only that sunk into them, because the rest is hidden and higher, the true realization. And so everyone declined, and that is called exile, they lost that spiritual degree where they knew how to realize it and what to realize it. And they were connected, they had connection between the spiritual actions and the corporeal actions. There was the temple and all those things that are connected to that. In the exile to begin with, we don't need to carry out the Mitzvot. How can you carry out anything if you're in the Klipa, the shell? So, the sages determined that we will carry it out, anyway, so as to later know when we return to the land of Israel – the land of Israel, also that there's Mitzvot that depend on the land, all kinds of things like that – when we return to the land of Israel, meaning to the world of Atzilut, when we rise to that correction, then we will basically know how, from the lower one, we will study the upper one, and we will carry out these Mitzvot in truth. Meaning as the actions of the will to receive with the screen and the upper light. But, well, for this, we can go back to what Baal HaSulam writes in The Introduction to TES, that it's the iron wall that separates between us and the wisdom of Kabbalah. And if we study the wisdom of Kabbalah, we will know in truth what actually exists in these 613 sort of codes, and we will know how to truly realize them as the vessel, the screen, and the light against it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:51) So what you're saying, one who studies Kabbalah doesn't have to do any external activities like we do today?

M. Laitman: I'm not saying do or not do, I'm just placing these things in their place, this is why you think I, God forbid, cancel the commandments. No, I'm just saying that everything has its place. It says that a commandment without intention is like a body without a soul; if you perform a beastly action, meaning with our body – that's why it's called beastly, so to speak – and in your heart, your heart is in order to receive, egoistic in the meantime. So you're doing something in this world, not the commandment in its real characteristic, in its real form, which is called the will to receive, receiving in order to bestow, the revelation of godliness. And by this, you fill your spiritual vessel with the Shechina, Divinity, with the revelation of the Creator, etc., everything that's written in all the books. So, until we come to the intention to bestow, which is called the screen and reflected light, we're not performing, observing the commandments, properly. This is what Baal HaSulam writes at the end of The Introduction to the Book of Zohar. That the commandments in the Torah are called councils and deposits, councils, how to actually come to observe the commandments, and afterwards when you observe the commandments, you carry out the commandments. And so councils and commandments, so councils are how to reach – this is what we do while we are in the preparation period. And then when we cross a barrier, we perform commandments, what are commandments? Commandments come from the word deposits in Hebrew: when you do this action in receiving in order to bestow, when you receive the deposit, you receive the light that corresponds to this act that is deposited there. And then you receive it in order to bestow. Meaning you correct your soul, so your soul is incorporated with the 613 desires, and each desire you correct with the screen in order to bestow. This is called having corrected the soul, performed the 613 commandments – from the point in the heart, if you begin to increase the point in the heart, that point inflates into the spiritual vessel, which contains 613 parts, which are called 248 commandments to do when you receive in order to bestow. And 365 commandments not to do, in which it is impossible to receive in order to bestow before the end of correction, commandments of prohibitions.

So, if you correct in this way all your desires, when your point in the heart has developed, you corrected them. You enter the degree called the end of correction, at which time all those operations, all those desires are united as one, the commandments to do and not to do. And create for you, engender for you a state called the end of correction, that's it. So all this happens in the point in the heart, in the desire, not in the hands and legs. And in the hands and legs, which the sages determined we have to observe, is in order for us not to forget. That we, on the contrary, that when I do something like a commandment or a blessing, it reminds me, oh, where am I? What is the Creator, what do I have with Him, what connection, what relation? It reminds us, so the branch in this world, which we should do with our hands, with our tongues, with our words, that branch can really bring us to the root, to observing through a screen.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:07) It's like a very confusing state, I know a lot of people who are regular religion, they started studying Kabbalah, they awakened, me too, at least four years. And I find myself that I stopped performing the external commandments. I stopped going to synagogue, to put on tefillin, things that I thought were of value, and today I don't.

M. Laitman: And that is the correct complaint on the part of popular Judaism, regular Judaism against the individual Judaism, which is Kabbalah. In the general Judaism, a person is taught what to do, and they extract from him, they take out from him all the question marks, all the doubts. You have to do, and the more meticulously you work without asking questions, the more righteous you are. This is true for the populace, for the regular people, until the point when the heart awakens in him, and then it doesn't help. When a person begins to live from within the point in the heart, then of course everything, all these regular observance weakens. He can't help it, of course he grows weaker – as I said before, he grows weaker in his job, in his family life. Everything that is in this world, including observing these practical commandments in this world, everything is simply, it's not in his field of vision, in its focus. He doesn't pay attention, his heart now is not directed to what happens on the level of this world. It's as if he's looking upwards, he's looking upwards, he's searching but he finds no connection between what he's looking for above and what is here. Not at work, not in his family, and not in observing the practical Mitzvot.

Student: So he's between heaven and earth?

M. Laitman: Of course, this is why it's written that the view of Torah is opposite from the view of landlords. And it's been known for generations, and this is why they were so afraid of those who started studying Kabbalah, because they were giving a bad example to the rest of the nation, the rest of the people. Because they were growing much weaker in their actions, but it's a period that a person has to go through. He has no choice because now he's going into a work that is according to the desire – not in work that is according to the education, to the upbringing – and until he finds in his desire a connection between practical actions and spirituality because there is a connection. What is the connection? It's an auxiliary connection, it's an assisting connection, so there's a period where he completely, maybe even sometimes stops. Maybe only keeping kosher remains, commandments not to do, mainly they remain. The commandments to do, he grows very weak in this, we have to be honest about it, this is what happens. So from here you understand. I also have a few students from the Orthodox sector, I study with them in a very, let's call it virtual, okay, and I'm really afraid of touching them. They were just people who begged – they said they couldn't do without it. But if you heard, then you heard from me that I don't accept any religious person, right? And this is for that reason that I don't want to show to his environment, and to his world and to his rabbis that I am spoiling people. That they descend, that they seemingly begin to descend, to decline from observing Torah and commandments in this world, practical ones. And it will happen to him for sure because I see on those few who are very orthodox, who are studying, how much in them, if they study correctly, how much the practical aspect in them is weakened. They can no longer stand for two hours and pray, because their prayer is a different prayer from the point of the heart, it's according to the inner desire. And they can no longer do all those things, and they are poor people, they're living in an ultra-orthodox Haredi population. And it's something that cannot be solved yet – and I don't want to say what will be the solution. I simply don't want to. I get into it before it's time? I see it, but the time will come, that's it.

But for secular people who, what do they do? Nothing, they only follow, they act according to their beastliness and not according to the previous education that pertains to some religion or something. Them, I accept, and then I don't need to determine or to obligate them to anything; but a little bit, all kinds of general lines, I try to make them accept them. A little bit of Kosher, keeping Kosher, a little bit of Shabbat, all kinds of things like that, very general, just for the framework. And if they can do a little more, let them do a little more, but without any pressure. And over time, and it takes time, a long time. But over time, a person suddenly begins to feel that he can connect his act in this world, through the heart, with a spiritual act.

Student: Before the barrier?

M. Laitman: Even before the barrier, there is such a feeling; and then to that extent, he's already happy. And by himself, of his own accord, he'll begin to do these things, because he'll feel in them that they advance him, that they seemingly kind of coincide, that they work in synchrony in his body. As it is written, All my bones shall say, he will feel in it. It's not because of some faith or fear or something, but he feels how the spiritual feeling flows in the body, truly in the bones. And then he will feel the branch and the root. But it has to come from the person, there is no coercion in spirituality, and we should wait – we should wait. Just as I don't yell at a person, why are you falling, you're not doing anything. Or what are you crazy today with your joy? Lower your volume or something. I don't say it, so I can't say it about that as well.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:08) There were all kinds of questions about faith for the masses and the point in the heart. And a person that is trying to go in this direction is going through so much stuff, and like you said, he has to peel off the shells. So what vessel do I have now that I'm running around to find the right frequency to accept myself correctly, what am I measuring? According to what can I check where I am?

M. Laitman: Within your soul, you have a variety of desires, qualities, and all of them, every single one of them just as they came down from above downwards, you have to use them. And perhaps you are arguing that you are doing many things that are completely needless, and you're going through states that have no benefit to them. That's not so, we learned that you can only increase the pace of going from state to state. It might be such a frequency where you won't even feel, it will not come up to your feeling. You'll go through these states so quickly and your body doesn't work at such a high frequency. It cannot raise all those things to you from within, but you have to go through them. Even now, we're sitting here as if I'm just breathing and falling asleep, almost asleep. Even in these states, we go through many states; so I'm not even asking how am I looking and what am I doing? I don't care, increasing the pace is all I can do, and I can increase the pace only through greatness of the goal. If I will think constantly about the goal and it doesn't matter if I'm suddenly deviating from the way thrown this way or that way, that will happen all the time. But if I grab the goal and all those deviations is thrown off, add to the coarseness of the vessel. Then the point in the heart develops through them, then through all those things, it develops and I can only determine the pace. So we shouldn't pay attention to these disturbances. Only pay attention to them, that on top of them, I'm connected to the goal. So it turns out that besides the greatness of the Creator, you have nothing else to think about – and everything else, let it pass.

Student: But what about the doubts? Maybe I made mistakes.

M. Laitman: You need those doubts. What do you mean without doubts? The main thing is the doubts, don't erase them. Only in popular upbringing, a person's doubts are erased, so he doesn't ask anything. That you have to throw away the doubts from your mind. But for us, it's the opposite, the doubts are the questions, they are the vessels so examine them. Did you ever hear from me that you mustn't be in doubts? On the contrary, I always told you, go someplace and check yourself there. If you have doubts, go, please.

Student: I'm speaking about advancement. Maybe I could put a bit more pressure if I did something this way or that way?

M. Laitman: You cannot go through, bypass any section on your way to the end of correction – again, I'm telling you, it is a mistake, a real mistake. You can try, but the method says simply, drop everything along the way; you need only to pull the string to advance toward that goal. That string, if it takes you into all kinds of directions, never mind but you're going, uou don't determine the detours, these records are in the soul. But every step that you do with those detours, all those records are inside, every cause and consequence must be realized. What smart aleck are you that you already know what you're going through? And maybe in a thousand years, you'll need it. How do you know?

Student: So what's the difference between a record that is constant and has to be realized as a certain discernment. Or if it's not permanent and it can go in a more pleasant way or slow and painful, what's the difference?

M. Laitman: We are now talking about how if we yearn for the goal, we go through it more pleasantly. Pleasantly means that if I feel good and pleasant with respect to the goal, by this I bestow upon the Creator. In this, I am in equivalence of form with Him, I want to be in a good feeling because then I am together with Him. If I am just satisfying myself, then I am disconnected from the goal. What does it mean to be connected to the goal? That His state is an example for my state.

Student: But there's a misunderstanding, I don't get it: On the one hand, you're saying that all the states till the end of correction are already set to begin with, the records. On the other hand, people are asking you about the future?

M. Laitman: What does it mean to change? To change, how can I change my fate? So, I'm answering, rise to a higher level. When you rise to a higher level, your fate will change.

Student: But you're saying it's something permanent, so if he ascends, he has to go through it. What's the change?

M. Laitman: In the place where you are, it is impossible to ever change anything. People come to me and want me to help them. What can I tell them besides, it'll be all right, It'll be all right. What do I tell them? If you stay like that, nothing good will happen to you! Oh boy, you just wait what will happen to you, right – This is how it should happen, this is how it will happen – but what am I going to say this to a person? So, just like to a little boy, and that's it; if you change a place to a higher one, you change your fate, what is fate? Fortune, it comes from the word dripping, these lights begin to drip to him in greater quantity, that's it. You're kind of asking me as if you've never seen the depiction of the world, you don't know about this whole thing. In their anything degree, is there anything that can change in some degree if you don't rise from that degree to a higher degree? Nothing will change, all the changes we go through are right and left in the same degree. We're thrown from right to the left, from right to the left, ping pong, that's it. Until you finally rise but you rise in a beastly manner, very slowly – right, left line, we're thrown and thrown and thrown and thrown. Instead, grab the rope and climb up.

Student: So that's acceleration?

M. Laitman: Acceleration, yes.

Student: So, what does it affect?

M. Laitman: Acceleration makes you go through all those states very quickly because you'll be connecting them to the root. The light will come and sort out these things.

Okay, so we have another hour for the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah.

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Reader: (01:32:46) Let's share impressions from the lesson. What from it are we taking to implement in the Ten?