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

Daily Morning Lesson August 21, 2026

Part 1: Rabash. What Is a Light Commandment? Article No. 26, 1987.

Reader: Hello friends! In the first part of the lesson, we will learn from a recorded lesson from September 30, 2002, based on the article, What Is a Light Commandment, or Easy Commandment, from The Writings of Rabash. We will read the article together in the Ten; again, we have 25 minutes to do so.

Reading: (00:44) What Is a Light Commandment?

Article No. 26, 1987

It is written, “And it shall come to pass that because you listen, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant which He has sworn to your forefathers, and He will love you and bless you.” RASHI interprets, “And it shall come to pass that because you listen” to mean that if the Mitzvot [commandments] are light [easy/unimportant], which a person tramples with his heels, “you will listen.” “[God] will keep” means He will keep with you His promise, thus far his words.

We should understand why it is written that if the Mitzvot are light, which a person tramples with his heels, you will hear, meaning that the Creator can give what He has promised to the forefathers. But if they do not observe the light Mitzvot, will the Creator not be able to give what He has promised us?

We cannot say that it means that even light Mitzvot should be observed. It should have said simply that if one Mitzva [commandment] of the 613 Mitzvot is missing, you will not receive what He has promised to the forefathers. However, the words “light Mitzvot” imply that because they are light Mitzvot, the Creator cannot give the delight and pleasure.

Therefore, we should understand why specifically the light Mitzvot are the reason, as though they prevent the giving of delight and pleasure to the creatures.

Our sages said (Avot, Chapter 2), “Be careful with a light Mitzva as with a grave one, for you do not know the reward for the Mitzvot.” We should also understand what is a “light Mitzva” and what is a “grave Mitzva,” as well as the reason for which we should be careful with a light Mitzva as with a grave one. It is implied here that we should be careful with a light Mitzva as with a grave one only because we do not know the reward for the Mitzvot. But if we did know the reward for the Mitzvot, would it be permitted to make distinctions in the caution? Can we say this?

In order to understand the above, we should first know the meaning of the 613 Mitzvot that we were given to observe, and for whose sake they were given. Our sages said (Avot, Chapter 1), “Rabbi Hananiah Ben Akashia says, ‘The Creator wanted to cleanse Israel, therefore He gave them plentiful Torah and Mitzvot.’”

In the essay “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” (Item 1), he explains that cleansing Israel comes from the words “merit” and “purification.” This means that through the Torah and Mitzvot we can achieve Hizdakchut [cleansing/purification]. He explains there what we need to cleanse. He says that since we are born by nature with a desire to receive for our own sake, which separates us from the Creator because in spirituality, disparity of form causes remoteness and separation, and having equivalence of form, which is called “the power of bestowal,” is against our nature, it is therefore difficult to work in order to bestow. For this reason, He has given us Torah and Mitzvot, by which we will be able to receive the power to overcome and will be able to work in order to bestow.

Accordingly, we should interpret “The Creator wanted to cleanse Israel” to mean that through the cleansing they will be fit to receive the delight and pleasure that He wished to give us, but we did not have the suitable Kelim [vessels] for the abundance. It follows that the Torah and Mitzvot were given to us as qualification by which we will purify ourselves and will be able to receive the delight and pleasure.

It follows that observing Torah and Mitzvot is for our sake. That is, by this we will be able to receive the delight and pleasure. Hence, when can a person receive the delight and pleasure? Specifically when he can work without reward. That is, specifically when he is not concerned with his own benefit and everything he does is only for the sake of the Creator, then he is fit to receive the good, since he already has equivalence of form. Then, it is considered that he has Kelim in which the abundance can be without being spoiled. This is regarded as Kelim that are cleansed from self-love, and are corrected with the desire to bestow. For this reason, they have equivalence with the abundance, which comes only because His desire is to bestow, and in such Kelim the abundance can be.

Apparently, it means that one who wants to receive delight and pleasure, enjoy the world, and lead a happy life should obtain vessels of bestowal in order to later receive delight and pleasure. Accordingly, we should say that he bestows so as to later receive. This is similar to bestowing in order to receive, which is called Lo Lishma [not for Her sake].

The answer is that indeed, a person should crave to adhere to the Creator, meaning to come to feel in his organs that any pleasure he wants to receive will be on the path of truth. The truth is that a person should come to a state where he can say wholeheartedly, “Blessed is our God, who has created us for His glory.”

This means that a person thanks the Creator for creating him for the glory of the Creator, meaning to increase the glory of the Creator in the world, meaning that everyone will see His greatness in the world.

It is written about it (Midrash Rabbah, Beresheet), “When the Creator wanted to create the man, the angels said to Him: ‘What is man that You should remember him, and the son of man that You should care for him? Why do You need this trouble?’ What is this like? Like a king who had a tower filled abundantly, but no guests. What pleasure has the king with the abundance? Promptly, they said to Him: ‘Do that which pleases You.’”

We need to understand what the argument between the Creator and the angels teaches us, as though the Creator had to have their consent to man’s creation. We should interpret that the argument with the angels comes to teach us about the purpose of man’s creation, meaning for which purpose man was created. The Creator said to them, “What is your question, Who is man, that You should remember him?”

That is, the angels asked Him, What could man receive from Your creating the world for the purpose of delighting His creations, and by this imprinted in him the desire to receive delight and pleasure? He will be in disparity of form from You, without any Dvekut [adhesion] or connection with You, so how will he be able to receive the delight and pleasure? To this comes the Creator’s reply that man should work in order to bestow and not in order to receive, as you think.

However, they will say, “But the King has created the tower filled abundantly, and what pleasure has He if He has no guests?” Over this allegory, man will receive the delight and pleasure, meaning that man relinquishes his own benefit and does not want to receive anything. Rather, he wants to bestow in order to bestow. But since the King derives no pleasure from creating a tower filled abundantly, for this reason they want to receive the delight and pleasure.

By this we will understand what we asked, that it seems to mean that man works in order to obtain vessels of bestowal in order to be able to receive the delight and pleasure. It seems that it is as though he is bestowing in order to receive, which is called Lo Lishma.

The answer is that after a person has achieved the degree of Lishma [for Her sake], meaning that he has no need to receive the delight and pleasure for himself because he has been rewarded with Lishma, then comes the allegory about the Creator’s reply to the angels, that it is like a king who has a tower filled abundantly but no guests, so what pleasure has the king from having made the tower filled abundantly?

With this intention, a person comes to receive the delight and pleasure. This is called “receiving the delight and pleasure in order to bestow.” In order for the Creator to enjoy, having made the tower filled abundantly, and so He may have guests, the person tries to be among the guests receiving the delight and pleasure, since this will please the Creator.

This is called that we must say, “Blessed is our God, who has created us for His glory.” That is, the fact that we receive from Him delight and pleasure is with the intention that we will be able to tell the glory of the Creator to everyone by their receiving of the purpose of creation, which is His desire to do good to His creations. This is called “the revelation of His Godliness to His creations,” and this is why he wants to receive the delight and pleasure.

It therefore follows that the lower one has no intention to receive reward for his work. Instead, all he asks of the Creator is to help Him so he can bring contentment to the Creator. In other words, since the whole body objects to this view that he should do nothing for his own benefit, but only that which pleases the Creator, he insists on this and asks the Creator to help him defeat his own body, so he will have the power to overcome self-love.

According to the above, we should interpret what our sages said, “Be careful with a light Mitzva as with a grave one, for you do not know the reward for the Mitzvot.” We said that this implies that we are looking at the reward because they said that you do not know their reward, and therefore should be careful with a light Mitzva as with a grave one. But then, they said, “Be as slaves serving the great one not in order to receive reward.” Thus, what does it mean that you do not know the reward for the Mitzvot?

We should interpret that the purpose of the creatures is to achieve Dvekut with the Creator, meaning to do everything in order to bring contentment to the Creator. This is why they said that you do not know, meaning that you do not want to know the reward for the Mitzvot because you are working without reward. Hence, what is the difference between a light Mitzva and a grave one? In any case, you do not want to work for a reward, but for free.

However, how can one know if he is truly working in order to bestow? For this, our sages gave us a place where we can discern: If we can be careful with a light Mitzva as with a grave one, and tell ourselves that we are working without reward and all our works are in order to bestow upon the Creator, then we are careful even with the slight thing as though it were a great thing.

Say, for example, that a person knows for certain that when he speaks inside the synagogue it is not an offense, for he would certainly not transgress in public, where everyone can see that he is committing so many offenses in one hour. But in truth, speaking inside the synagogue during service is an offense, but a person does not regard it as such. This is regarded as a person trampling with his heels because he does not feel that this is such a great offense that he should be careful with it.

Yet, if a person calculates and says, “I do not care if this is a great or small offense,” that is, if I were working for a reward, then I would distinguish between a light Mitzva and a grave one. But I am working without reward, but only in order to serve the King, so why should I mind whether I am observing a light Mitzva or a grave one? On the contrary, I want to be careful with a light Mitzva as with a grave one in order to know about myself that I am working only for the Creator. By this, I can know if I am considering the reward or the service of the King. If a person can exert the same efforts with a light Mitzva as on a grave one, he can be certain that his actions are just fine.

But if he sees that he cannot exert the same efforts on light Mitzvot as he exerts on grave Mitzvot, it is a sign that his intention is only the reward, and not the actions that he wants to please the Creator. Rather, it is all for his own benefit.

The allegory I have given, about the person who speaks during service at the synagogue, does not mean that this is a light or a grave Mitzva. I only used this as an example because it is common to slight this custom. But what is a light Mitzva or a grave one is a personal matter, and each one determines for himself what is grave and what is light.

According to the above we can understand what we asked, that it implies that the Creator cannot give what He promised to the forefathers, as it is written, “The Lord your God will keep with you the covenant which He has sworn to your forefathers, and He will love you and bless you,” for they will not be observing the light Mitzvot, which a person tramples with his heels.

The answer is that in order to be able to receive the delight and pleasure that He promised to the forefathers, this light must have suitable Kelim [vessels] for this, meaning vessels of bestowal. Therefore, if we have the vessels of bestowal, He will be able to give us the delight and pleasure. But if the creatures have only Kelim for reception for themselves, there is no place where the light of the Creator can be because of the disparity of form.

This is the meaning of what is written, “And it shall come to pass that because you listen.” That is, the light Mitzvot, which a person tramples with his heels, you will hear as though they were the gravest of the grave. But this can be only when a person does not consider the reward, and therefore does not mind whether it is a light Mitzva or a grave one, since he is serving the teacher not in order to receive reward, but only to bestow. Therefore, he does not mind what he is doing for the King, as long as he is giving contentment to the King. It follows that specifically with light Mitzvot it is apparent that a person is working for the sake of the Creator.

Accordingly, the meaning of the condition of the heel is not that specifically if you listen to the Mitzvot that a person tramples with his heels, He will give the delight and pleasure. Rather, the meaning is that the Creator has given us a sign concerning observance of Torah and Mitzvot, that we said that it is that by the merit of Torah and Mitzvot we will be able to obtain the vessels of bestowal, with which we will be able to receive the abundance. The text comes to teach us that if we observe the light Mitzvot, which a person tramples with his heels, it is a sign that we are walking on a path toward obtaining the vessels of bestowal.

It is not so with one who chooses between the Mitzvot. What is he choosing? Where he can get more; this is what he chooses. This indicates that his intention by observing Torah and Mitzvot is not to be rewarded with vessels of bestowal. Rather, he engages in Torah and Mitzvot Lo Lishma, but for the sake of receiving reward. This is why he examines each and every Mitzva, where is there a greater reward.

For example, we see that our sages said, “Circumcision is great, for it is equal to all the Mitzvot in the Torah” (Nedarim 32), “Good deeds are greater than charity” (Sukkah 49), and there are many other examples from our sages.

It follows that when a person says, “I want to do this in order to please the Creator,” and he has no consideration of the reward, here is a place where the Creator can give all the blessings, since here is a place that is called “vessels of bestowal.” This is regarded as what is written, “Every place where I mention My name, I will come to you and bless you.”

The question is, it should have said, “Where you mention.” However, it means that if the Creator can say that this place is His, since a person has given this place to the Creator and has cancelled his own authority, this is why the Creator can “mention,” meaning say that the person is saying, “This place is the Creator’s.

Reader: Let's share our impressions, let's continue to the recorded lesson.

M. Laitman: (25:46) We heard the article, What Is a Light Commandment. Wherever a person annuls himself, there the Creator can be felt, and there He is. In those same vessels, in those same feelings that a person makes room for the Creator, there the Creator can dwell.

Are there any questions?

Student: (26:36) When talking about the light, easy commandments, we give the example of a corporeal commandment.

M. Laitman: Light commandments, you know, it's like the example of, Love your neighbor as yourself. Light doesn't mean that they're easy, but that we don't grasp them, they're not absorbed in us. And we think they're not so important, it seems to a person that it's not so serious, somehow it'll work itself out, it'll be fine, and we run away from them. And we return to them after a long time, and great pressure, and the accumulation of many, many reasons, when we already see that otherwise it's impossible. Then they begin to become important commandments; their importance gradually becomes clear from the fact that a person sees from his own experience that nothing helps him. And he returns to the first advice, to what Baal HaSulam writes in The Freedom: Choose the environment, only through it can you change. So a person does a thousand and one things over many years with a hope that he will change through all kinds of other means, and afterward, gradually, having no choice, he returns to what's necessary, that's called a light commandment. We feel that it's light, we think it'll happen by itself, that it's not so bad, there are seemingly more important things along the way. A person doesn't mind taking on something that seems difficult in terms of exertion, as long as it's further removed from the content of, Love your neighbor as yourself, or from connecting through the friends to the Creator.

In other words, we each time try to give spirituality our own definitions: what spirituality is, who is the Creator, what our work is, what our goal is. We, time and again, slightly replace the true definition with some other definition that we can live with, which is more comfortable for us. For us, the Creator is a force that helps, He is something good to hold on to, like that more or less, without any more precise definition.

M. Laitman: (30:01) To give a more precise definition, that He is only the force of bestowal, and that He bestows to the extent that you bestow, and connects with you to the extent that you are ready to relinquish yourself, etc. Otherwise, He is isolated and disconnected from you, and appears cruel and really the opposite to you, as if He's the worst possible being in relation to your present qualities. So, a person doesn't want to interpret it that way. He still interprets it differently. I remember, I appeared on the radio in America, and there was some prominent rabbi there who was against me. So he said, What, there's no evil force in the world? I told him, There is an evil force in the world, it's that same Creator. How can that be? I told him, It's written, after all, There is None Else Besides Him. What does it mean, Who is that, ultimately? There's one ruler over this whole matter, over all of reality. It can't be, he said. You understand, he's appearing on the radio, and he's saying it can't be. There are many questions there about the Holocaust from American Jews there; so, that's not from the Creator.

In other words, a person doesn't interpret the Creator correctly, and this is the source of all his confusion. That he does not think precisely about changes but about all kinds of things as though in some other way, the correction, the advancement, and the attainment of the goal can be attained in other ways.

Student: (32:02) How can a person advance towards bestowal if he doesn't want it, how can a prayer emerge?

M. Laitman: A person can nevertheless advance toward bestowal, even though he knows that he doesn't want it, through all kinds of indirect ways, alright? Meaning, to find the society in an indirect way. When I bestow upon a friend because of my pride, because of my desire to control, I can bestow upon him and tell him, We need to advance, the goal and the Creator are important, etc. I can say it to a friend, but not to myself. But if he later says it to me in some way, then I'll accept it. So this is indirectly, not directly. What does he tell us in, The Freedom? He doesn't say, free choice means that you have to choose me. No, he says, choose a society that will tell you that it's worthwhile to choose me. This, a person can hear, it's not a matter of whether he wants to do it or does not want to – even if he does not want to, he'll hear it. Just like on the outside, we're given just one opening through which this idea can enter you from the environment, that's all.

Student: (33:41) The Creator can be important for me, and the goal can be important. The society can really advertise this to me.

M. Laitman: The Creator cannot be important, forgive me, I'll tell you from the outset, and the goal cannot be important if you interpret it, correctly. Define precisely what the goal is and what the Creator is and then you'll see that these are things that, as he writes here, are light. We don't want them.

Student: Well, that's what I'm asking, I don't want it, so why would I receive it?

M. Laitman: Don't receive it. That is, you're asking this: how, from the outset, did I who came here? I came here because I felt bad. I looked for all kinds of things. It's not that it seemed to me that I was lacking something. I was lacking something, personally – I was lacking something, that's how it was, in the eyes of others, perhaps I lacked something – you had a medal, you were some kind of Israeli hero there, all kinds of things, fine. But nevertheless, there was something you were lacking, and that's why you came to listen. Well, and now you say, when I came here, I thought I would receive something, but now instead they're telling me, give, so why do you stay, why are you staying? Well, there are smarter people who've already run away, why didn't you run away? Well, the friend also had an opportunity like that, but it already passed him by, today it's already a little harder to run away, you know!

Student: Well, but there's a feeling that this is the place.

M. Laitman: A place for what?

Student: I don't know. Closeness.

M. Laitman: Closeness.

Student: You said, so why don't you leave, but I think if you stay here, then supposedly you don't, well, you don't want to receive the same blows you received back then, maybe that's it?

M. Laitman: What's he saying?

Student: That maybe you don't want to receive the same punishments that you received in the past, and that's why you don't leave.

M. Laitman: Yes, a person who's here is already certainly wanting not to receive any more blows. Yes, he's afraid that if he leaves this, then he will receive blows, at least like before; certainly, that's called Lo Lishma, that we are here for that reason, that's right. Blows can be these inner emotional blows, right? A lack of desire, helplessness, a lack of some answer about life. Something without which everything else can be full of pleasures. But you already see the end of the pleasure, so the pleasure itself is no longer worthwhile. That's a meager person, what can you do?

Student: (36:49) The vessel that a person clears out, makes for the Creator, is it something a person holds in permanence, or is it a feeling that can also get lost?

M. Laitman: There is only one place called Malchut, the desire to receive. You either fill this desire to receive with yourself or with the Creator. You need to decide, what does it mean, with yourself or with the Creator? Whom do you care about? The vessels remain the same vessels. Whom do you care about when using these vessels, that's called making room, making a place. Either all of my mind and all my heart, all my abilities and qualities, I work with them in order to serve the self. Or with those same things — I have no others — I work in order to serve Him, that's called making room, making a place.

Student: So, this is a feeling. If a person feels it, does he feel it and it stays forever, or is it something permanent, or is it something that can simply get lost? Meaning, is it a feeling that a person can feel for one minute, and then?

M. Laitman: No, no, no, it comes intermittently and goes away, and it comes more and goes away, until it becomes clear, until a person tries to be in it as much as possible.

Student: (38:28) You said that when a person works outside of here, and if he doesn't work for a month, he doesn't get his paycheck, then he has great sorrow. And here you can sit with this sorrow for years, and this whole process, it accumulates very slowly?

M. Laitman: Outside, we work for a salary, you say, and I work for a month. So, first of all, I'm certain that at the end of the month, I'm going to receive my salary, right? I have a bank account, where at the end of the month, a sum of money arrives from my employer, right? And that is customary in society, and also I have confidence in the employer, and society upholds this as well, so I'm certain that this is how it's going to be. Maybe it'd be better if I received it on the spot, but sometimes, you know what, it's safer for it to come at the end of the month and into the bank, fine. Meaning, I nonetheless feel that it's mine, as though I have it now. You are asking this: here we work for years after years, and we have nothing from it. We don't actually feel the profit, we don't see the bank that it might someday go into, we don't feel our employer, the boss, who's going to pay us. So why are we still able to sit here and hold on? Maybe we're such heroes that we're already working in order to bestow? Like if you speak with some people from Bnei Brak, they'll say, What do you mean, if it wasn't for the Creator, would I be able to do this? That's what you're asking. So maybe I'm already a complete righteous. I don't see the Creator, I don't see a reward, I don't see anything. But look at me, how many years I've been carrying on, dragging through, through difficult things, difficult exertion. When people from outside look at you, they say, What, every morning he's getting up at three at night? Look how many things he does over the course of a week. He really is an angel, he's not a person, he's surely already reached the end of correction, and there's probably even something beyond that, right? So the question is, what keeps us going?

Student: No, it's, why don't I feel sorrow from not having received my salary, yet?

M. Laitman: Oh, meaning then my question as well is, why am I still able nonetheless to remain here, what keeps me here? And why don't I even feel sorrow over that I am here? I don't feel the employer, I don't feel the reward. But nothing, I can seemingly remain like this in any other exertion. If I were getting up every morning for something else, I would demand a salary. I'd say, My friend, well, instead of working during the day, I worked at night from three in the morning. So I'd demand another half of the salary, let's say, yes? But here you do nothing. So how do you explain that?

Well, you understand this or not, you're not stupid either, and lazy, you are, yes, so how could it be that you get up at this time? What does your mother think, tell me! You've surely gone crazy.

Student: As for ruining your health, my mother hasn't been telling me that for 30 years already. And she might tell me that for another 20 years.

M. Laitman: But how do you explain it?

Student: I don't know, I do have this sorrow, I don't identify with him on this.

M. Laitman: So we have no answer to this. How do we nonetheless keep going, first of all? Certainly, the friend knows; what answer do you give at a moment like this?

Student: (42:44) If I wanted to give myself answers, one of the things you stop once you start giving yourself answers. You say, maybe I'm in this playground, I don't know what's happening, anyway?

M. Laitman: You yourself don't know why, but something compels you to get up, right? Certainly, it's not shame before me or before a view, that's clear, you just ignore it, finally put an end to it once and for all, and that's it. So what is it, conscious, conscience?

Student: No, it's not my conscience.

M. Laitman: Some kind of self-esteem?

Student: No, it's simply searching. I don't know. You look for something beyond. And maybe, maybe, but I don't know.

M. Laitman: But searching for something beyond is fine.

Student: What do you have to lose?

M. Laitman: What's there to lose? My friend, during these hours at night I could be doing many things, and at your age?! No, no, I'll tell you, my question is different: you sit here, you understand? You're a smart guy, very sharp, really – maybe that's an obstacle – sitting next to you, there is a doctor of chemistry, and he finished his thing at the police; and he's in accounting, and there's computer people here. There are people who know how to make a calculation, so why don't we make the calculation? Yes?

Student: Maybe they're afraid of this calculation?

M. Laitman: But people sit here who are not the kind who float in the air and come here just to feel their feelings. Or even to suffer, and afterward they have this sorrow towards someone, there's some kind of, I don't know, they build on it, some kind of spiritual performance, there, in a theater or something. These are very, very realistic, down-to-earth people. So let's say that somehow we keep holding on here. Why doesn't it bother us that we don't ask?

Student: We have this inner fear of asking.

M. Laitman: Well, but even without giving yourself an answer, you continue.

Student: Right, but you always, you constantly fight with yourself.

M. Laitman: But if another 20 years pass like this, you'll tell me the same thing in 20 years.

Student: No.

M. Laitman: Okay, so what's the difference?

Student: Because you calculate every day, and you, every moment you calculate.

M. Laitman: So just as you made the calculation yesterday and you receive nothing today, do you make the calculation and receive nothing and tomorrow it'll be the same?

Student: But there are changes, I don't know.

M. Laitman: What change needs to happen for you to finally say that that's it, the calculation's over? Either I receive something from you now or nothing, what's this? Every day you do the work, the boss pays you nothing and you agree to it – until when? Tell me, where should there be some kind of limit?

Student: Well, I set the bar for myself every time anew.

M. Laitman: Fine?

Student: There are points where you calculate, but as of now I don't see the salary, the reward, but maybe if you look back?

M. Laitman: Maybe we should make some kind of general protocol on behalf of our society, and sign that if we don't get an answer by such and such a time, we'll give him some kind of one-month extension and that's it? You have an answer as to what to do?

Student: (46:37) Okay, I don't agree that we don't work for a reward, everyone here is here because he works for a reward that he receives now, not in the future, not for something that was, not stars or anything. There's a reward that can be on the level of honor, it can be on the level of control, it can be on the level of the hope that he has. But that's now, it's not something that will be or anything else. No one here works and everyone works because they receive a reward now, but each one needs to discern what reward he has at every moment. What's special about this path is that the rapid changes that happen bring a person to the point where each time what he thought was his reward now, he sees it's not the reward that he's actually receiving. And then he has to replace the reward, and this continues until in the end he sees that all these kinds of rewards, all these rewards are worth nothing.

M. Laitman: When does that happen?

Student: When he receives a blow strong enough to understand that this reward is not enough.

M. Laitman: Enough? More? You didn't provide an answer, yes?

Student: I don't know exactly how.

M. Laitman: If you don't know exactly, then no. To the point and quick.

Student: In one sentence, probably the most important thing is movement along this path. Where a person measures as if his vessel in relation to?

M. Laitman: In short, if some, you say, if some transformation happens to me.

Student: It's the vessel in a person with which he goes through everything, and on this path he sees some kind of progress no matter how.

M. Laitman: I mean, okay, I understand him, I'll be his, or his advocate, okay? So, he says that when we replace spiritual advancement, we replace corporeal advancement with spiritual advancement. I gave another lesson, I had faith in something, I wrote something more, I acquired, I see some signs that I'm advancing. But these aren't spiritual signs, but they still satisfy me – so is this a lie?

Student: That's exactly it, but you value every degree.

M. Laitman: Okay, so I switched this one spiritual goal, replaced it with all these little goals that I can attain and settle for. This is like normal people in normal life, I made Kabbalah this kind of job where each time I receive some satisfaction from it, some fulfillment, yes? It's good that you're doing this already!

Student: Now, that's clear but as much as we talk about there being a complete separation between spirituality and corporeality, all that a person shouldn't think that it'll help him incorporate reality, or the other way around. You live on your own playing field, you can't say, no, that's something else, a bonus on the side, you always connect them together, so you say, Okay, here I am studying Talmud as a Sefirot, I don't know, because of all this, he helps me think differently.

M. Laitman: But even more than that, if I, now, tell you that you won't receive anything from getting up in the morning, and you will have nothing, nothing in your life, will you get up tomorrow or not?

Student: I won't believe you.

M. Laitman: So, there's something beyond that still. Even if you're told you won't receive reward, yes? He's laughing, he sees the trap he's in!

Student: (50:24) It's a state of having no choice, because at least for me, I feel that what I've been searching for seemingly for a long time exists only here. On the other hand, it's as though I was deceived, as though I was promised one thing, and in the end, I'll receive something completely different, if I receive anything at all. But right now, it's in a state of having no choice.

M. Laitman: So that's a problem. And is there any— This is good, this is good, yes! Now, from all these things, maybe we can look for a solution. To sit like this, because I have no alternative, meaning even though the door is open, I cannot leave. And staying here, it's also without any, it's a prison.

Is there any, can it be that we have a solution, and it's very easy, and we get hints about it, and it's as though, look, everything is open, and you still can't do anything with yourself, yes?

Student: (51:33) Say, for me, the solution is as if the solution is very clear: either you get up and leave, or you try to forget or ignore it, but you put yourself into this completely. But again, even if you put yourself into this completely, then you look at the people around you, and you say, there are people who are at least in it completely, in your eyes, they're in it completely, and I don't know. You don't know whether you even want to put yourself into it completely?

M. Laitman: Problem, a problem! Every morning, when I look at you, I see actual miracles. The guy showed up, how can it be? But it's a wonder, you see, you already stopped, every day, you care less and less about the payment, the compensation. You begin, you stop calculating – you begin to get accustomed to sink in, you're not even preoccupied with this anymore – you're like a rabbit skipping towards the snake! The snake hypnotizes it, you saw how snakes eat them, right? And it simply goes, has no choice, it just simply enters the snake's gullet!

Student: But on one hand, the reward you're going to receive is if it's already clear to you that it keeps changing, and as if it becomes less. On the other hand, in my opinion, it's frightening to go like this, and that's why you're already constantly fighting with yourself?

M. Laitman: With the snake, yes, but you enter, and you can't do anything, that's the picture – the world is funny, so you laugh! No, but it is a problem, so what to do? Well, what? They think that other than this hat, you also have an answer.

Student: No, but it seems to me that my personal feeling is that the more we are drawn here, we are pushed here. My feeling is that the more we are drawn, we connect here because?

M. Laitman: Okay, so you're saying that more than being thrown out of here, I'm attracted to here, drawn to here, it's fine.

Student: I'm pushed because I feel bad, because I know I fear a little about myself. But I have a feeling that it's like this for many people, because of their experiences in life.

M. Laitman: Maybe we should stop our entire dissemination factory, maybe it obscures the problem for us, it confuses us? We're working, we're doing all sorts of things, a thousand and one things, walking here and there, this plan, that plan, let's do this, let's execute on that. Let's just feel that we are empty, not performing any real spiritual actions without any spiritual results, and that's it? Maybe it's not good what we're doing, like children in kindergarten running from one corner to the other; making a lot of noise and all sorts of things. But maybe these motions are all with no benefit, maybe they just complicate things for us. Maybe we need this, maybe it's a kind of a, yes, healing through

Student: Occupational therapy.

M. Laitman: Yes, occupational therapy. So, occupational therapy, and let's not just, yes, so we don't stand before the abyss. And we build for ourselves something to engage in, and we're proud of that, and beyond that, we don't see that this is it. Other than the noise and waves, we're doing nothing, we're not executing, we're not receiving, we're not achieving, reaching. Maybe it's all just a big cloud of dust that we made just from the dirt, and that's it?

Student: (56:20) He explains it, like, before us, which causes an even stronger push from behind. On the contrary.

M. Laitman: The friend, say something, you think it's good?

Student: This really is something that happens almost every day. I'm here too and it's actually worthwhile. To market, it's not easy. Sometimes you think this is the place, and there's no other place, and sometimes you think that it's not.

M. Laitman: Sometimes in this way, sometimes that, that much I understand, but what's your summary?

Student: No summary.

M. Laitman: You see, we all are, we can be in a, maybe in a dead end, and we run into a situation where, you know, we need to reverse, maybe, and look for a different way, you know, maybe it's a dead end and we can, you know?

Student: It's a tough dilemma. It's not small.

M. Laitman: Yes, it means we are in danger, a danger of remaining like this. Well, that's the greatest danger! Meaning to be in a lie, it seems to you that you can advance, and maybe there's no advancement from this?

Student: And what, you progress on the outside?

M. Laitman: Don't tell me it's worse outside, I'm not looking to compare which is better or worse, I'm looking for something practical, I want to achieve something concrete. True, it's a great difference if you have something for the pain or not, but you're still sick, you understand? The fact that it's easier for you because you're here, somehow you calm your conscience, what am I doing with my life – yes, that's true. But in general, it's just a tranquilizer, it's a drug, it's not a solution.

Student: At the level of awareness, there is simply no other choice in order to calm yourself.

M. Laitman: You think there's no alternative? I think maybe we should sit and think, maybe reverse, maybe stop with all our activities and measure and weigh everything properly and see. Maybe we need to completely somehow live in a different framework, in something, relationships, or in terms of place – I don't know what to change, everything with, switch everything for.

Student: All these things, it seems to me that it doesn't matter, even if we stop everything now and make some other plan and follow a different plan, we will very quickly reach the same point. Because in all of this we're looking for the answers in a place where we've already reached the conclusion that we don't have the answers. If the answers were within us and in our minds, then we really wouldn't still be here, we'd be outside, and we came here to try to reach something that we don't have and we have no ability to attain it. All of our calculations will always ultimately lead us to the fact that we still don't have it, either, and that we have no other way of attaining it.

M. Laitman: Meaning, so you're saying that even if you reverse, you pull back from all your actions, this will be reversed in terms of physical actions, corporeal. You won't be able to build a new track, something to provide you with something completely different in essence. Yes, but ultimately you reach through any other way the same inner state that you're in now. So, if you want to have this framework, you'll have that one. If not this work, then it'll take some different form. But internally you'll still reach the same state as now, and what is the state you have now? You're not demanding anything, you don't want anything, this routine is enough for you.

Student: That's not it.

M. Laitman: It's not it?

Student: No, the point is that outside is good, too, so what can you really do? What if we do externally, in the end it won't?

M. Laitman: So, you've come to a place, a gathering of the elderly, and outside there it's worse – wars, murder, theft. And here we sit and.

Student: No, it's the opposite. The point is precisely to go crazy inside, but to go crazy inside. Sometimes a little bit comes out, it comes out, but this is the place, otherwise what? There's no other way to do it, any external action we take, maybe we need to keep creating external commotion each time and truly awaken the inner part because that's how it works. But it's not these external actions or all kinds of calculations like these that will lead us there. They cannot accomplish the actual thing. Maybe they can give something here and there, some kind of thing, but once again.

M. Laitman: Alright, yes?

Student: If a person came to the four phases and he had no goal, he wouldn't come. And so, if he has a goal, then there is a goal, then we all decide that we come here. So he's envious of something, maybe, and I'm not, so he?

M. Laitman: Meaning, the fact that we show each other that there is a goal, by that we seemingly obscure the true goal from one another?

Student: We attract each other toward the goal.

M. Laitman: Oh, you attract each other to the goal? Yes.

Student: (01:02:44) I think that if we don't do the external actions, the lie that you spoke about, and also the fact that we are in a lie, will not become revealed. Because life, in life, a person realizes everything from his own experience. He needs to discover that it's a lie; if he doesn't discover it, then it won't be a lie. So, isn't that what we expected?

M. Laitman: So, in short, we continue on the same track, or we know that we would have chosen a different path, but still we can't change. Or we do change it, and then what, and in what way, what do we do? Or do we have no choice, and simply, you know, just a small head, and that's it?

Student: I think the point, here, is that, on one hand, anything you can do, if it involves changes and things like that, then you say, this is nature, as if they come to you and tell you, this is your nature, or a sense in the sense, things like that. On the other hand, there's this matter of, A person's soul shall teach him. Or as if that's what you're doing is the best thing for your advancement, with this desire that you received. Or there are certain desires that you need to overcome, or there are desires that you need to go along with.

Now, a routine is more comfortable, that's clear, look when there are changes, like with the factory, how long, how many times did they say the sentence, Rav said it has to be this way, Rav said it had to be that way, so that people would enter the framework of the factory? Why, because no one likes changes, because they're already become accustomed to a certain routine. On the other hand, if you came, if you came to me, for example, you told me, come give me an idea for change, I have no idea what the change should be.

M. Laitman: I'm not talking about the factory you saved today?

Student: I mean, any change along the path, because on one hand, the path is seemingly very clear. On the other hand, I don't know if Baal HaSulam's path is very clear, but on the other hand, in this framework, you can also go crazy from one extreme to another. So really, it's so you have no eyes at all to see, how do you measure? How do you measure, how do I know if right now, I don't know, if I travel, I don't know, I go with Ventura to the desert for a week with the books, reading, sitting there in some ditch, is that less good? How can you know?

M. Laitman: Try it.

Student: Right, I'll try it, but you can spend your whole life doing that in here, aren't you trying a new every time?

M. Laitman: Well, friends, say something!

Student: (01:05:36) I have no idea where we're going or where we are, where we will arrive. And the truth is, I'm not even interested, when we were talking just now, it fascinates me, there is something.

M. Laitman: He's working on his motorcycle, you know, it's not there's a lot of philosophy!

Student: And it fascinates me to observe myself: how I behave and how I look from the outside like that, that's all. And it's an experience, I enjoy it, I'm attracted to it – what am I attracted to? I see it as right, and that's all, it seems simple to me.

M. Laitman: So you're saying that I have some inner feeling of the true inner path, that I'm on the right track, I don't know why and I really can't even check it exactly. But I have some kind of inner confidence that this is true. Maybe I don't know, maybe because everything else immediately looks false to me.

M. Laitman: You have reward, what reward?

Student: Displeasure, I look at myself at how I behave and how I'm changing all the time.

M. Laitman: Ah, so you still see that you're changing for the better, seemingly at least?

Student: Not for the better.

M. Laitman: Not for the better, but then.

Student: Simply things happen to me. Things are happening.

M. Laitman: Things which give you some satisfaction. Alright, satisfaction, this, you know, a man gets up in the morning and he does something in his life different to all the chickens, yes?

Student: I wanted to ask, why is routine not good?

M. Laitman: Why is routine not good, you're asking? I'm not saying that routine isn't good. No, no, no. I'm not saying that, I was just asking about the purpose of that routine.

Student: My person comes here, what's the goal?

M. Laitman: Wait, what is a routine? The routine is constant work on new records. Go, go on?

Student: (01:07:57) You simply said that, from what I understand, and you don't know what it is internally. There's something internal that's twice as something here, what is that, no one knows. You came here for the sake of routine, if I'm forced to lift myself up like this and bring myself here, then I can scrutinize something and there's no other way. Nevertheless, in my opinion, the way routine pulls you along slowly, it gives you something and that's it. Why do you check, that's it. That's why I think routine is the only thing, you could say it's the goal.

M. Laitman: So you're saying I put myself on this track, I follow this routine, and I see from time to time that I advance in some way, I change for the better. This routine is actually saving me from my nature, specifically, this routine. It's not routine in the negative sense of the word, yes? Rather, this is advancement, not routine.

Student: That's the problem, that a person knows how to fulfill himself. He can still fulfill himself, and this prevents us from attaining the true reward?

M. Laitman: You're saying that our problem is that we receive some fulfillment from things on our path, or we run somewhere to fulfill ourselves – that is a problem. Because of that we don’t feels as though we are suffering and were willing to continue.

Student: On one hand, it's good, we need to work, the force to work, it's worth being here.

M. Laitman: So we receive some little reward here and there, it gives you power to work.

Student: Maybe we can close the valve a little bit?

M. Laitman: Okay, so we receive no reward, as they said, eat a little piece of bread with salt, eat a little bit of water, drink a little bit of water, we turn to that method, you say.

Student: It's still external form.

M. Laitman: It means literally a life of sorrow. There are people in those times where bread and water was a lot. Thousands of people throughout history, millions of people, even half of the world today is willing to live just for bread and water. Give them that, they don't need anything else except just existing, like animals, beasts. Whatever they do their whole life, they just eat, and the body, their body just exists, and just to sustain the corporeal body, they're alive. What does each animal live for? Same with man, how many people live to really fill themselves with some ideas? Hmm? No answer, okay, we'll think. We have to study now and we'll get to the answer.

Reader: Let's share impressions from the lesson, what from it are we taking to implement in the Ten? Then we'll move to the next part of the lesson, before that we'll sing a song!

Song: (01:18:12)