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

Daily Lesson (Morning) July 17, 2024.

Part 2: The Ten as an Environment for Spiritual Development for Everyone – Selected Excerpts from the sources

Reader: Hello, we’re in the lesson, the topic: The Ten Is The Spiritual Environment For Development. We're continuing with excerpt number two from Maor VaShemesh. 

Reading: (00:19) Excerpt 2. Maor VaShemesh, VaYechi

The essence of the assembly is for everyone to be in one unity and for all to seek but one purpose: to find the Creator. In every ten there is the Shechina [Divinity]. Clearly, if there are more than ten then there is more revelation of the Shechina. Thus, each one should assemble with his friend and come to him to hear from him a word about the work of the Creator, and how to find the Creator. He should annul before his friend, and his friend should do the same toward him, and so should everyone do. Then, when the assembly is with this intention, then “More than the calf wants to suckle, the cow wants to nurse,” and the Creator approaches them and He is with them, and great mercies and good and revealed kindness will be extended over the assembly of Israel.

M. Laitman: Are there questions?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:08) There's a difference between a gathering of the Ten to a big gathering, because the Ten is like, it's a concept, it's not a number, right? 

M. Laitman: I don't know what you want to continue with this.

Student: He says that when Ten people gather, and the more the better.

M. Laitman: Let’s say? 

Student: Because usually we say that the concept of the Ten is ten, no more, no less. So, what's the difference, I don't really understand?

M. Laitman: If we're talking about connection, then the more people there are in the connection, and in the connection they each need to nullify before one another. So, the more people there will be, the connection will be stronger. 

Student: So that's what you explained before, the difference between working in your own Ten to Tens in general? 

M. Laitman: I don't know. 

Student: Or society in general? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Reading: (03:33) Excerpt 3, RABASH, Article No. 2, (1984) "Concerning Love of Friends" 

One must disclose the love in his heart towards the friends, since by revealing it he evokes his friends’ hearts toward the friends so they, too, would feel that each of them is practicing love of friends. The benefit from that is that in this manner, one gains strength to practice love of friends more forcefully, since every person’s force of love is integrated in each other’s.

Question (Turkiye 3): (04:49) If a friend in the Ten can bring the Ten to the connection that Baal HaSulam is speaking about to that degree. How should he turn to the Creator in order for him to participate in building the common soul? 

M. Laitman: That's serious work, meaning if in the group such a person exists that can raise the desire of the whole group to the Creator. The desire that the Creator will connect within him all the desires of the members of the group, this person truly collects the desire of everyone, raises them to the Creator, and does all this work. 

Reading: (06:30) Except #4 Maor VaShemesh, Portion Yitro

One should depict his friend as serving the Creator more than him, […] and “authors’ [also counters’] envy will increase wisdom.” By this, he will grow increasingly stronger in the work of the Creator. This is the meaning of “Each one is burned by his friend’s canopy,” from the word “fervor.” By seeing that his friend’s canopy is bigger than his, a fire will burn in him, and his soul will further ignite toward the work of the Creator, and he will attain more attainments of Godliness.

M. Laitman: More, read it again.

Reader: (07:29) One should depict his friend as serving the Creator more than him, […] and “authors’ [also counters’] envy will increase wisdom.” By this, he will grow increasingly stronger in the work of the Creator. This is the meaning of “Each one is burned by his friend’s canopy,” from the word “fervor.” By seeing that his friend’s canopy is bigger than his, a fire will burn in him, and his soul will further ignite toward the work of the Creator, and he will attain more attainments of Godliness.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:34) What does it mean to depict that the friend is working more in the work of the Creator? We say that one should not judge by what a person sees, so what does it mean to depict myself? 

M. Laitman: Why are you asking in Russian, you don't know in Hebrew? 

Student: I can, but it doesn't come out in Hebrew.

M. Laitman:  You have to go to Hebrew. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:23) In the Ten we do actions of equivalence of form, that together we want to equivalence the form to the quality of the Creator.

M. Laitman: Yes, interesting, how do you do that? 

Student: That's my question now. 

M. Laitman: You're asking me, you're doing it? 

Student: Yes, I feel that it's, there's an inner tendency that we constantly need to scrutinize the equivalence of form, so what is unity? What's an action of unity? 

M. Laitman: Unifying is where we unite and become one.

Student: I want to unite with a friend, now, a group of friends. So, what, it's something that I'm depicting and then it just happens? 

M. Laitman: No, you're already talking about the series of actions. 

Student: What's the inner action I do when I think of unity? On one hand, it's actions we have to do; on the other hand, if the light won't come, it won't happen. So, it's not clear, what I do, what it does? 

M. Laitman: Pray together, first of all, pray that you want to reach unity in order to be more similar to the Creator. 

Student: It's enough that I'm thinking of it and?

M. Laitman: No, no, no, it's not enough. 

Student: Yes, but then I activate prayer. I activate a desire towards the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: We don't know what it is exactly, but we activate that desire, right? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: What's the difference between unity and connection? 

M. Laitman: Unity includes connection. 

Student: What's the differences in action? 

M. Laitman: The act of connection needs to reach a state which leads to unification to unity? 

Student: When we're in unification, what's our form? 

M. Laitman: That you're like one? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:55) What if in Ten there are friends that say that they're not envious. They don't have envy, outside of spiritual work, there's all kinds of things to envy and work outside. But here it's?

M. Laitman: What we need to give them examples that the advancement depends on envy. Envy, lust and honor take a person out of the world.

Student: That they know in their mind but in practice there's a feeling that yes, we know everybody already. We're sitting here years with everybody, we know everyone who he is where he is and they look on the side and say no, I'm not envious. Is it right so let's say the envy about little things and go to…

M. Laitman: I don't know about small things or big things but each needs to envy the others by them being greater. 

Student: But how?

M. Laitman: They understand more, they feel more, they remember more, in short they're advancing. 

Student: So, the friend who doesn't have it, what he has to work on himself and say…

M. Laitman: Yes, there's a will to receive in each person that you can work on and bring him to places where he envies everyone. 

Student: It's a work of that friend or all of us on him?

M. Laitman: It's his work, but the others have to assist him with this. 

Student: Let's say can we speak of a different friend and increase him?

M. Laitman: Could be, yes, let’s say you're right. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:45) I Just want to continue this because friends say, sometimes, that each one has a unique point of his own and with the years and the common work it becomes even more outstanding, and you see every friend with his tendencies and his qualities, how he expresses himself on the path, and it gives inspiration but friends say it's not envy because that's how the Creator created him, with his qualities with his abilities. So how to awaken envy, not inspiration, envy?

M. Laitman: Through connection and incorporation we can evoke the envy. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:37) I was reminded of something else: I hear friends say that the poor man isn’t envious of the daughter of the king unless there's extra greatness. But it's so far from me, I'm not envious about it. So, what do you do with that kind of attitude? 

M. Laitman That there is no envy?

Student: No, it seems so far from attainment that to begin with I give up on it. 

M. Laitman: Giving up? So, we need to give examples that the others can be envious of. Because only through envy we can advance. 

Student: If I could ask, for instance, the Rav is he envious?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: In what and what can the upper one be envious not the upper one if you don't but towards us, yes… 

M. Laitman: So, what I have to be similar to you?

Student: No, God forbid. No, what are you envious about?

M. Laitman: I have other examples. 

Student: Not us. 

M. Laitman: No.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:56) Can we envy you? 

M. Laitman: If you can, if you see, you can want. 

Student: There's things that we see with you, but then we're asking, am I envious of something spiritual or something corporeal that I see? I'll give you an example. You always say how you're impatient and we know sometimes in meetings. But in whatever has to do with spirituality in your students, you have patience that isn't, you can't even understand where this patience comes from. 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: So, can I envy this patience? So, is it a good idea to search for things that I can see and ask and want?

M. Laitman: You won't find a lot of things like that, but yes, look. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:52) We learned that there's a law of unconditional love. That if you express it towards another side, so a person gets colder. So, we see how the Creator is concealed, and let's say towards children, he gives the example, how we have to limit our love, otherwise they'll also hate us. The question is in the Ten, should I limit myself, too, in love, in order to not, so the friend won't chill out from it. That's still to keep some fear or what? 

M. Laitman: I didn't understand. 

Student: There's a law that when there's unconditional love, the other side chills out. So, is it also valid in the Ten, do I have to limit myself? 

M. Laitman: It could be. Yes. 

Student: So, if I show love too much, he could chill out from it.

M. Laitman: Yes, by that you're lowering him to a lower degree. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:04) I want to continue the friend. If we say that unconditional love chills a person out, let's say about Petah Tikva. If a person knows that it's not important if he comes every day or once a month. So, as a result, it's the same thing, oh wow, look, we love you, so doesn't that chill people out? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So how can we scrutinize the right attitude towards the state today? It could be different after a few years or half a year. But how do we scrutinize when you say you have to decide? What do you mean? 

M. Laitman: It's still early to talk about that, but in essence, you need to decide who remains in the society and who you're expelling because they're not observing or keeping the orders. 

Student: So, you give a place but according to the status, they're not in society? 

M. Laitman: Until that condition.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:25) I want to continue about envy and awakening in the Ten. Because if the ten is together for many years, it's like a family, you get used to it. It's also hard to be envious, you already feel the connections and to renew the connection is hard. I'm also in the preparation to the lesson team. In the past, we worked with another ten in Petah Tikva, Petah Tikva is in charge of Shabbat, the groups of Petah Tikva, and then a little while ago, we decided that it's easier, it's hard to do it between two Tens. There's problems for them to connect, in a week to reach something, I felt it really strengthens one Ten in front of the other. Because when we had to connect with another Ten to do something together, so we looked, it awakened us. We felt that on the outside, we have to project ourselves better and to learn from another ten, what their orders are. Right, it's hard and every time it becomes harder but there was an additional value of envy in common work. Now, I don't know if it's right to say, because in the world Kli, there are Tens that work together, and our Ten, there was also like the other Tens, we also worked with Italy for many years, and it gave us a lot of forces and concern for the friends, and once it stopped, so we felt that something was lacking, then it disappeared. But the question is should we somehow, as a Ten, come one Ten before the other and be envious and learn from one another? Or is it still too early? 

M. Laitman: Nothing is early, but nevertheless, we need to have someone who can properly scrutinize it, who can critique it. 

Student: So, is it worth doing it or not? Let's say now in Petah Tikva. It's easy, everybody knows each other. You reach a decision, and you flow. 

M. Laitman: No, they always have to announce before they tell everyone to notify someone, some other Ten, that that week is in the, that their job is to scrutinize it.

Student: So, to join another Ten because now there's a team that they're all so used to one another.

M. Laitman: No, no, no, that doesn't give anything. Okay, friends, it's clear to us that advancement is not simple. 

Reading: (22:23) Excerpt #5 RABASH, Article No. 30 (1988), “What to Look For in the Assembly of Friends.“

Each one should try to bring into the society a spirit of life and hopefulness and infuse energy into the society. Thus, each of the friends will be able to tell himself, “Now I am starting a clean slate in the work.” In other words, before he came to the society, he was disappointed with the progress in the work of the Creator, but now the society has filled him with life and hopefulness.

Thus, through society he obtained the confidence and strength to overcome because now he feels that he can achieve wholeness. And all his thoughts—that he was facing a high mountain that could not be conquered, and that these were truly formidable obstructions—now he feels that they are nothing. And he received it all from the power of the society because each and every one tried to instill a spirit of encouragement and the presence of a new atmosphere in the society.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:55) About unconditional love and limiting, what you mentioned. How to open the heart and give it all the way and not to limit myself in order to not to lower the friend to a lower degree, like you said. 

M. Laitman: How could it be that if I am opening my heart to receive the friend, I am lowering him? 

Student: No, we said that the friend gives unconditional love.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, by that, we lower a friend. 

M. Laitman: Why? 

Student: Because if it's only love, so where is the work here? 

M. Laitman: But that's what I feel from the friend. That he is in absolute love. 

Student: Right. 

M. Laitman: Well?

Student: So why does it lower him to a lower degree? 

M. Laitman: I don't know. 

Student: So, what is this limitation actually? 

M. Laitman: Where is it written that it's a limitation? 

Student: We said that when a person gives unconditional love, so it lowers a friend. How to know to give unconditional love correctly? 

M. Laitman: We'll learn, but from here we can learn it. These few things, here, we're talking about the fourth paragraph? 

Reader: I just read number five.

M. Laitman: Number five. Okay, we will think later. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:57) I think that what the friend meant was that another friend asked you earlier about unconditional love in the Ten. And if there's a friend that relates to a different friend in unconditional love, constantly, gives him love and love and love, you said it can lower the friend; the one he's relating to in that way, right? So, what does that mean? 

M. Laitman: That's what it means. 

Student: Why can it lower him? 

M. Laitman: Not that it lowers him, but rather bring him to hatred.

Student: Why? 

M. Laitman: Because he's giving love that is not dependent on anything. 

Student: So why does it cause the friend to feel hatred? Why not envy? 

M. Laitman: Because he feels no boundaries, no borders. No matter what he does, we can see this between parents and their parents. I'm sorry, children and their parents. Where if they open their mouth and their heart, they're willing to give everything to their child, the child goes crazy, he goes wild.

Student: That's between parents and children but if I see a friend that is constantly in love. So, I feel that he's in Gmar Tikkun, it's a high, maybe it's a good thing.

M. Laitman: But you cannot receive any response from him. That's why you are like in the air. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:33) So to continue that, unconditional love isn't always good to show, because it can chill you out. 

M. Laitman: Yes, correct. 

Student: But we said in the article that if you don't add love or show it on the outside... 

M. Laitman: That's something else.

Student: So, what does it mean to show love on the outside and it's not unconditional? How can a friend?

M. Laitman: With borders, that in these conditions it's better, and in those conditions it's less good, but with boundaries. 

Student: So, can we say that it's purposeful boundaries towards the vessel of a friend in front of me? 

M. Laitman: Yes. Oh, suddenly we came to something!

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:32) On what the friends said, so we should be in the attitude between the friends and the Ten, like a flirt, between love and hate? That I have to awaken also fear and also love in them? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: To the measure that there is fear, there is love, one holds the other? 

M. Laitman: We'll talk tomorrow. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): Event details

Reader: Announcements.