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

Daily Morning Lesson: October 18, 2025 

Part 1: Recorded lesson - Dec 9, 2021

Baal HaSulam. Shamati 121. She Is Like Merchant-Ships

Reader: Hello, we are reading from the writings of Baal HaSulam, page 620 in the Hebrew book, article 121, “She Is Like Merchant-Ships.” You can find the study material on the Arvut system, and you click the study material button at the top menu. You can also send your questions through the system, and selected questions on the material will be asked during the lesson.

We will read. She is like merchant ships. 

Reading: (01:02) 121. She Is Like Merchant-Ships

I heard

In the verse, “She is like the merchant-ships; she brings her bread from afar,” when one demands and insists, “she is all mine,” that all the desires will be dedicated to the Creator, the Sitra Achra [other side] awakens against him and claims, “She is all mine,” too. Then there is a tradeoff. A tradeoff means that a person wants to buy a certain object, and the buyer and seller debate its value, meaning each of them claims that he is right.

And here the body examines to whom it is worthwhile to listen: to the receiver or to the giving force. Both clearly argue, “She is all mine.” And since the person sees his lowliness, that in him, too, there are sparks that do not agree to observe the Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] even as a dot on the iota, but that the whole body argues, “She is all mine,” then, “she brings her bread from afar.” This means that from the removals, when one sees how far he is from the Creator and regrets and asks of the Creator to bring him closer, “she brings her bread.”

Bread means faith. In that state one is awarded permanent faith, since “God has so made it that He would be feared.” This means that all the removals that one feels were brought to him by the Creator, so he would have the need to take upon himself the fear of heaven.

This is the meaning of “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on what proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.” This means that the life of Kedusha [holiness] in a person does not come specifically from drawing closer, from entries, meaning admissions into Kedusha, but also from the exits, from the removals. This is so because through the dressing of the Sitra Achra in one’s body, and its claims, “She is all mine,” with a just argument, one is awarded permanent faith by overcoming these states.

This means that one should dedicate everything to the Creator, that is, that even the exits stem from Him. When he is rewarded, he sees that both the exits and the entries were all from Him. This forces him to be humble, since he sees that the Creator does everything, the exits as well as the entries.

This is the meaning of what is said about Moses, that he was humble and patient—that one must tolerate the lowliness, meaning that in each degree one should keep the lowliness. The minute he leaves the lowliness, he immediately loses all the degrees of Moses he had already achieved.

This is the meaning of patience. Lowliness exists in everyone, but not every person feels that lowliness is a good thing. It turns out that we do not want to suffer. However, Moses tolerated the humbleness, which is why he was called “humble,” since the lowliness made him glad.

This is the rule: “Where there is no joy, the Shechina [Divinity] does not dwell.” Hence, during the purification period, there cannot be the Shechina, although purification is a necessary thing (like the lavatory: although one must go there, one is still certain that this is not the King’s palace).

This is the meaning of Beracha [blessing] and Bechora [seniority], whose letters are the same [in Hebrew]. Seniority is GAR, and the Sitra Achra wants the GAR, but not the blessings, since blessing is the clothing over the Mochin. And Esau wanted the seniority without the clothing, but it is forbidden to receive Mochin without clothing. This is the meaning of Esau’s words: “Have you not reserved one blessing for me?” “One blessing” means the opposite of blessings, meaning a curse. It is said about that: “He loved cursing, and it came to him, and he had no desire for a blessing.” 

M. Laitman: Okay. I don't even know where to start. The article itself is basically clear. It's not simple. It requires emotional participation from a person, but it's clear, so maybe I should read till we have time, and we don't have another article.

M. Laitman (Source Text/ Commentary): (07:53) Article number 121, She is like merchant ships.

In the verse, “She is like the merchant-ships; she brings her bread from afar,” when one demands and insists, “she is all mine,” that all the desires will be dedicated to the Creator, the Sitra Achra [other side] awakens against him and claims, “She is all mine,” too.

So who is right? 

Then there is a trade-off between these two tendencies, dispositions in a person.

When a person wants to buy a certain object, and the buyer and seller debate its value, that it's worthwhile or not worthwhile for each one, to give it to the other. Meaning, each of them claims that he is right. 

And here the body examines to whom it is worthwhile to listen, to the receiver, or to the giving force. Both clearly argue, She is all mine. That I want to receive, and I am correct, that's what the desire says in a person. And on the other hand, he learns and understands that the whole purpose of creation is the opposite, to bestow. And since a person sees his lowliness, that he is incapable of overcoming his will to receive, that he has sparks in him that do not agree to observe Torah and Mitzvot, the commandments, meaning to be in bestowal, even as a dot, or on the iota. Meaning he doesn't want anything. Let's say, if you cannot determine what is correct and what is not correct, then of course he would cancel his will to bestow, express his will to bestow, because he understands intellectually what he needs to do. But in terms of feeling, he is only about reception. And so the whole body argues, She is all mine. It is written, what should one do in this case? She brings her bread from afar, meaning precisely from these removals, when one sees how far he is from the Creator, from the giving force, from thoughts of bestowal, from living in a world of bestowal. It is just as now he is seeing everything through the eyes of the will to receive. So, he should look at the whole world with the aim to bestow, as if he is opposite. And he regrets and asks the Creator to bring him closer to this desire to bestow. Then it says, from afar, she brings her bread.

Bread means faith. It is a power of bestowal. In that state, one is awarded permanent faith, if he asks. Of course, not at once does one come to it, but he does. Since God has made it that he would be feared, this means that all the removals that one feels from bestowal, that it’s difficult, he doesn't want it, he can't, he has to overcome and to calculate, it’s all artificial in him, it’s far from him. But it is as if he is being forced. So, she brings her bread from afar. Those states were brought to him, states of removal. And on the other hand, to see that this is the truth from the perspective of the Creator. So he would have a need to take upon himself the fear of Heaven. That, on the other hand, he would still want the desire to bestow, and would fear that he wouldn't get it, or that it would be taken away from him. And that then he wouldn't be able to bestow upon the Creator, and not upon himself.

M. Laitman (Source Text/ Commentary): (12:46) So the fear of Heaven that he asks for, when he asks for the rest of bestowal, that it wouldn't be for him, but everything would be for the Creator in order to bestow. So he sees how far it is, and how he must, nevertheless, must attain it. He still can't justify whether it is worthwhile or not. So to the will to receive, of course, it's not worthwhile. But in the will to bestow, they say it is worthwhile, because the desire to bestow is still also in order to receive. And it's worthwhile for me to come to the desire to bestow, because by this I'll be in a better situation. Again, the calculation is for myself. So gradually, through the lights that shine from above, this is why it's called from afar. She brings her bread from afar. That from such remote things, in this kind of alternative way, indirectly, the lights come and change a person. 

This is the meaning of she brings her bread from afar, meaning from removals, when a person sees and feels that he is so far from the Creator. And he regrets it, and asks the Creator to bring him closer. And although he wants it, and doesn't want this real nearing, in each request he makes, there is a part that is false, that he would like to get the result, but not the state itself. This is called she brings her bread from afar. Bread means faith. In that state, one is awarded permanent faith, meaning the force of bestowal, gradually, through such requests, that he does, of course, in a group, with the friends. And each of them also tries to ask in this way, to get closer to her, to be impressed, and to pray. Because God has made it that he would be feared, that the created beings would feel that without him they can't think correctly, direct themselves correctly, not do anything correctly. This is why He, the Creator, brings them to a state where every step of the way they will need his accompaniment. To the point that if the Creator does not clothe in them, they will not succeed. As it is written, “if the Lord does not build a house, those who build it labor in it in vain.” Meaning we won't be able to build anything. Rather, our work is like a little child who drags his father, his dad, to help him. So, of course, the grown-ups build everything, but according to the demand and need of the little ones. Meaning there all the removals he feels, the Creator brings him to these states. So he would have a need to take upon himself the fear of heaven.

He himself is incapable of anything, on the one hand. On the other hand, anything he wants, he can receive from the Creator if it is on the path of correction. This is the meaning of what is written, MAN shall not live on bread alone, but on what proceeds out of the mouth of the Creator. This means that the life of Kedushah, holiness in a person, does not come specifically from drawing closer from the Creator, to be drawn to get closer to the Creator. Meaning not from the entries when he comes in contact with the Creator, entries into spirituality. In other words, admissions into Kedushah, holiness, but also from the exits, from the removals.

M. Laitman (Source Text/ Commentary): (17:26) This is because through the dressing of the Sitra Achra in one's body, and it does its work, her work, and it claims she is all mine, when she gives a person the opposite feeling from nearing the Creator, with a just argument. That by overcoming the states, a person is rewarded permanent faith. In other words, it is the opposite. Precisely when we feel that we are being rejected, pushed away, and again, we’re thinking not about bestowal, not about spirituality, but about reception, corporeality. We think that life brings us, that corporeal life brings us these thoughts and these arguments. No, it's incorrect. It's not true. It is that same Kedushah, same nearing to the Creator, that we have to do from there. We are given opposite states from nearing, confusions, and although we call it the other side, Sitra Achra, it's on purpose, because there is no other way. We have to approach in this way, right, left, left, right, on two legs, and each direction seems to be the opposite from the other direction, but we are advancing on the middle line. That's the way it is. 

This is the meaning of MAN shall not live on bread alone, but on what proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord, meaning that the life of Kedushah, holiness, in a person, does not come specifically from drawing closer from entries, meaning admissions into spiritual states, when he feels more spiritual. Meaning admissions into Kedushah, to bestowal, to connection, but rather nearing comes in different ways. From the exits, meaning from removals, where by the Sitra Achra, being revealed in clothing, in one's body, we feel egoistic thoughts, egoistic calculations, considerations, and it claims, she is all mine. That this is how we have to work, this is how we have to relate to life, and not to spirituality, but relate to life in a real way, the way life demands, with a just argument. That according to our intellect, our rationale, the argument of the Sitra Achra is correct. By overcoming these states, when a person still prefers the forces of bestowal, the forces of connection with the group, then a person is rewarded with permanent faith. Precisely by being in states where he feels the Klipa, the shell, which demands of him to relate to the whole world, to all of reality, in a rational way, a corporeal, mundane way, worldly way, to think with his mind and heart and reason, not above it. If he, in these states he overcomes it and says, I want to go above it, precisely now when I have this corporeal feeling, so I know exactly how can I rise to spirituality. This means that one should dedicate everything to the Creator, so that these thoughts of reception, gaining, succeeding, it all comes from the Creator, and on this he will build spirituality, otherwise he'll have nothing to build on. He gets the coarseness always from the Sitra Achra, from his will to receive, but rising above the coarseness, as we rise above the degree, on a degree, on a degree, on another degree, rising is through help from above. So first of all, help from above comes by feeling the coarseness from states in life, relating to them in a spiritual way, bestowing, connecting. First of all, there is rejection, the coarseness of the degree, but when we rise on the degree, we see why it was prepared in this way.

M. Laitman (Source Text/ Commentary): (22:32) This means that one should dedicate everything to the Creator, that is, that even the exits stem from Him, from the Creator. Exits means I'm leaving the previous state, and entering a more egoistic, worse state. And again, I look at the world in this kind of profiteering way, how I can succeed, how I can gain, etc. But when he's rewarded with relating to the situation before him correctly, then he sees that between the exits and the entries, it all came from the Creator only. There is in our world, in our life, no state, whatever it is, that doesn't come from the Creator. Here's where we have to unite them so that all the removal, the moving away and the nearing, which this is our whole life, there are no other states. So we have to put into every state of ours only nearing or growing closer. And there's no in-between. In-between is a moment when a person has to decide. And then he understands that it all comes from the Creator, and the Creator is governing him, managing him in every single state. By this, by establishing himself correctly, that every single moment comes from the Creator, either for the purpose of moving away, so he will feel how far he is, and then he'll be able to draw closer, or for the purpose of nearing immediately. But it's all in order to draw nearer, either immediately or through feeling remoteness. So a person has to unite everything to the Creator, dedicate everything to the Creator, meaning even the exits come from the Creator. And when he is rewarded, he sees that both the exits and the entries were all from the Creator. And therefore, as a child comes to us and cries that he is not succeeding, we too should come to the Creator and cry that we're not succeeding in anything in life. We can't build, we can't do, but our weeping, our crying should be a crying where we understand that it came from the Creator, and we're happy that it came from Him, and we are happy that we understand that it came from Him, and we come to Him with gladness along with the crying that we can't do anything by ourselves, but we're happy that we have the upper force and the connection with it. We have someone to turn to, and then we come to Him. In other words, precisely the fact that I feel totally powerless. I have no desire to connect to the friends, to advance to anything. I don't care about anything. Either I live in this corporeal life, or I might as well just die and not feel anything. But out of these states, I nevertheless have to come to the Creator and connect to Him, like a baby with a grown-up, and in this way search how to find the right relation, the right attitude or approach to the state that He has created for me. So in the end, by this, I attain that everything came from the Creator. The rejection, the drawing closer, the Sitra Achra, the good force, they all come from the Creator in order to raise me so I will grow to the height of the Creator. From Malchut, I have to reach the degree of Bina. And by this, it forces him to be humble, meaning to cancel himself, annul himself. I am willing to receive from the Creator both the bad things and the good things. I don't want to determine anything, but everything that comes from the Creator is for the best. Since He sees that the Creator does everything, whether the exits or the entries. The exits kind of seemingly moving away from Kedusha, from holiness, from spirituality, and the entries drawing closer to spirituality.

M. Laitman (Source Text/ Commentary): (27:42) This is the meaning of what He said about Moses, that he was humble and patient, that one must tolerate the lowliness. You tolerate it by beginning to understand that it is to our benefit that the nature that the Creator gave us to begin with, and by overcoming and by willing to accept it, specifically by this, we get closer to the Creator. We get closer to the degree of Moses, meaning that in each degree one should keep the lowliness. The minute he leaves the lowliness, he immediately loses all the degrees of Moses he had already achieved.

What is this lowliness? I don't want to determine anything. That's the first condition. Whatever comes comes from the Creator. There's None Else Besides Him. And therefore I agree to take upon myself any situation that I get into, because it's not me getting into it, but the Creator getting me in this state. So what should I do? Accept it. Agree to it. That's the meaning of humbleness, the lowliness. And I should specifically come to a state where, because I have to force myself into lowliness, I'm happy about it. Why? Because by this I feel my first contact with the Creator by annulling myself. This is the meaning of, the beginning of the restriction. 

This is the meaning of patience. Lowliness exists in everyone. Lowliness. But not every person feels that lowliness as a good thing. That he's willing to return to it as many times as needed, and he accepts it first by force and then willingly. It turns out that we do not want to suffer. This depends on the importance of the state. Whether we want or don't want to suffer, none of us wants to suffer anything, even the slightest thing. That's how we're built. No one is a hero in this. If we are given anesthesia, then our nerves are numb, so we don't feel it. That's not called heroism, or some people have a high pain threshold, so they don't feel things that other people feel. You can sting them with a pin, and they don't feel it as painful. And there are others who feel the slightest thing. The more we advance to spirituality, the more sensitive we become. But it's to the extent that we can pass or convey this sensitivity to something purposeful, that I connect this sensitivity to the goal, and then I come to a state where even, I don't know, some very powerful and very unpleasant feelings come to me. But if I connect it to the goal, I not only not suffer from them, but I can even be happy about them, because I see how they bring me closer to the goal, which in my eyes is more important than those states of pain. And in this way, a person weighs everything in his life. But here we have to navigate ourselves, how we relate to the forces that accompany us, direct us. So, I'm returning back to the sentence beginning of the paragraph.

M. Laitman (Source Text/ Commentary): (32:39) This is the meaning of patience. Lowliness exists in everyone. Anyone can bring himself, can lower himself before great people, before states. But not everyone feels that lowliness is a good thing, that he's willing to return to it and live in it, get into it, and every state of lowliness he is willing to live in it, to submit himself and determine that I will be in this way. I will take it upon myself, take upon myself the upper light, the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven, no matter what. “As an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load.” An ox to the load, right and left, meaning in all the states. It turns out that we do not want to suffer, if he doesn't want to accept it forever. However, Moses tolerated the humbleness, which is why he was called humble, since the lowliness made him glad. It all comes from seeing the goal.

Okay. This is the rule. Where there is no joy, the Shechina, divinity does not dwell. The Shechina dwells only out of joy. Hence, during the purification period, there cannot be the Shechina, divinity, because he's still oppressed. And it's such a pressure that he still is going under scrutiny and pressures, so no joy can come to him. And also, purification is necessary. Although purification is necessary, because he says it's like we have to go to the restroom. We have no choice. But we understand that this is not the most important thing in life. It's only because it's necessary, physiologically necessary, both in corporeality and in spirituality. So, although we must go there, we need to understand that we have to go into certain negative states, states of removal and other such states. But they are such states that are necessary in order to build on top of them the real spiritual life, just as it is with our digestive system, the system of secretion of waste from the body, which we have to do like any animal. But by this we build life. It's the basis of corporeal life. So, likewise, we have to relate to these works in spirituality. And we have to have the waste, we have to have the Sitra Achra, but on top of it we build spiritual life, precisely on top of it. 

This is the meaning of Beracha, blessing, and Bechora, seniority, whose letters are the same in Hebrew. Bechua, seniority is GAR, and the Sitra Achra wants the GAR. The seniority, because there are the revealed lights of Hochma. But not the blessings, since the blessings is the quality of Bina, clothing everything with the force of bestowal, the light of mercy, because the blessing is the clothing over the Mochin, the lights, like the light of Hochma. And the blessing is the light of Hassadim, that we have to clothe over the light of Hochma. The blessing in this way, when the reflected light clothes the light of Hochma, we can accept into us those two lights, clothed in one another, in our vessels that are ready for it. And Esau wanted the seniority, meaning the direct light, without the clothing. But it is forbidden to receive Mochin without clothing. It causes the breaking. This is the meaning of Esau's words. Have you not reserved one blessing for me? One blessing means the opposite of blessings, meaning a curse. It is said about that he loved cursing, and it came to him, and he had no desire for a blessing. We will learn these things, but this is what we have from the article.

Question (ITA 4): (38:19) What does it mean to be rewarded with a permanent faith? Question. What does it mean that he was rewarded with permanent faith? It's a very high degree. It's coming to the degree of Bina.

M. Laitman: It's the midpoint where he acquired vessels of bestowal, the degree of Bina, bestowal in order to bestow over all his vessels, meaning he rose above his ego, above his will to receive, and he wants to work only with vessels of bestowal. This is called an incomplete righteousness, meaning he corrected only half. Now he keeps going to receive in order to bestow, not to bestow in order to bestow as it is now, as he works with now, but to receive in order to bestow, to reach the state of a complete righteousness, meaning from the degree of Bina to rise to the degree of Keter, the second half of the path.

Student: If adhesion with the Creator is made of entries and exits, why should I regret the distance from the Creator? 

M. Laitman: You need to regret the distance between yourself and the Creator, because you still did not acquire his qualities. This is what we call distance. It's not physical distance. It's equivalence of form, meaning in bestowal with the desire, the force of the qualities of yours and the Creator's. The Creator is entirely to bestow, and you start from entirely to receive, and gradually as you approach Him, it's like a scale. This path between you and the Creator is graded like that. It's clear this is the Creator, Boreh. This is the created being, Adam. And there's a path by which a person approaches the Creator. And there are degrees. The midpoint, this is the Malchut, where Adam is. This is Keter. And in the middle is Bina. So you have degrees between you and Bina, and from Bina to Keter. To reach the degree of Bina, this is called Hafetz Hesed, delighted in mercy, Bina. It's entirely to bestow. That's first. And a person that starts is called wicked, because he's in the will to receive in order to receive. And he comes to a state, comes to the degree of Bina, where he doesn't want to receive anything for himself. This path from Malchut to Bina is called the path of purification, where he purifies his will to receive from the intention to receive to the intention to bestow. He replaces his intentions gradually from the lightest to the heaviest, from in order to receive to in order to bestow. He feels it in his distance to the friends, how much he begins to care for them, how much he wants to be connected to them. How much he wants to connect with them in order to build a place that will be connected with everyone else. And this connection comes from the desire to go from one to ten. Let's say this is the Ten, and he wants to get to such a connection. Where the inner form of the connection will be called Boe, Creator, the force of bestow and love. But this is what they are building. The Creator does not exist outside of us. There's no Creator without a created being. The correct form of the created being is when he builds above his egoistic desire. This is called Creator. And before that, although we also refer to the upper force that relates to us, the Creator, but the true Creator is the one that we construct, the one that comes from below. And what comes from above is not the Creator. It's the light of Ein Sof, and that's how we relate to it. These are different names, let's say. So we gradually begin to build the force of bestow. Through this force of bestow, we connect until we build the degree of Bina. And from the degree of Bina, we come to Keter. That's how it is. In this way, we correct ourselves. The entire wisdom of Kabbalah is in this. We have nothing else to discuss, but rather only to realize, to implement those things. To go from our will to receive all the way to correction. We don't erase. We don't destroy anything. We don't do anything with the will to receive. On the contrary, we ensure that it remains and that it enters correction with the help of the reforming light that brings us this illumination from above, the surrounding light.

Question (USA Northeast): (46:10) Earlier, you were talking about being happy as a result of being in contact with the Creator. My question is, is this some type of manufactured happiness or intellectual happiness, or does it ever come as a true response for having this contact with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: When I do a certain action, which is related to spirituality, I feel a clothing of my joy. It's a clothing of joy. It's an awakening, as it's written, all my bones shall declare it throughout my entire body. In all my bones, we can sometimes feel it. So, a spiritual impression goes through all one's cells, all the entire nervous system, all the parts of the body, whether or not we understand and feel those parts. But the impression is a very special one. We didn't get to feel it yet, perAHPs, but we will get to it. This impression comes to us to the extent that we know how to use it correctly. A person shouldn't suddenly jump and go mad and start to perform abnormal actions. Therefore, there has to be here a certain degree of control from a person on himself. And it comes to him because he learns how he needs to be. He learns how he needs to be in attaining those forces in the prayer, in maintaining himself, in connecting to the friends. All these forces help him build internally a shield, a vessel in which he can contain all the spiritual phenomena. Spirituality demands from a person a great deal of a strong nervous system and patience to be above what our body suddenly feels. He's beginning to go wild. The importance of the goal, the importance of the group, the importance of the upper force, that it all comes from him and we need to ascribe everything to him. This has to be for us the primary thing. I don't simply jump after my impressions like a little child. Rather, I carefully criticize those impressions and I determine my reaction and how much of it I'm going to give for each and everything. And this reaction should be for the sake of the society, for the benefit of the Ten, since this is with certainty the spiritual step that I can take.

Question (Hadera 1): (50:15) Where in the diagram you drew is the first contact between the person and the middle line? 

M. Laitman: We're not learning about it and I don't want to hear about it. We're not talking about here about three lines. Why are you always asking a few steps ahead or off to the side? Why not delve into what we're doing here? 

Question (Latin 1): (51:02) If a person overcomes the states and wants to come to complete faith, what is complete faith? 

M. Laitman: Complete faith is a truly big thing. It means that for anything that's revealed in my vessels of reception, I prefer to be above this in vessels of bestowal, meaning the Malchut appears in me more and more and more in various degrees of coarseness, and I wish to be above these degrees of coarseness, not to let go of them, but specifically on top of them to construct the force of bestowal. This is called love covers all transgressions. It's not love yet, it's only Bina, but this is how I build myself. If the evil would not reveal itself, I have nothing with which to build, to rise above.

Question (Moscow 1): (52:12) If we remain in the feeling that everything comes from the Creator, this feeling is so fulfilling that there is a question from this. You could lose a third of your weight because of this excitement. So will we be able to raise our intention to make it in order to bestow? 

M. Laitman: We need to try with all the states. We try to connect between us more and more. We don't need to sit together for this all the time or to even connect externally. Rather, I need to build inside of me a certain template of the Ten, and inside this template, I need to portray for myself, to arrange for myself all those states that I wish to reach, and to do such exercises. If I do it, I'm building my vessel, my soul. And certainly it doesn't release me from correctly relating to the friends, also externally, but the attitude has to also be towards the inner form by which I'm building the group, and the inner form has to also relate to how I relate to them externally.

Question (Unity 4): (54:32) Tell me, please. What is the edge of sensitivity that you have to have in the spiritual order to connect it to the goal? How to awaken this importance, this sensitivity, so as to feel spirituality? 

M. Laitman: We still can't say about our desires, about our feelings that they are spiritual, because we are still inside our will to receive, in order to receive, but the fact that I want to direct it somehow, or bestow connection, at the very least, not maybe bestowal, but connection with my group, where my group is like a special unit in the army, a commando unit. When we want to conquer something, we connect to a single goal. We take orders from our commander, commanding officer, from the Creator, and we work. So our goal, although it's egoistic, nevertheless, from Lo Lishma, you come to Lishma, that's how we teach ourselves to come to a state where the connection is above the I. The connection between us is more important than my egoistic desires. That's what I need to get used to. 

Question (Almaty 1): (56:10) The Creator gradually reveals to us states of self-lowliness. I feel that if my whole lowliness will be revealed, I won't be ready for it. How do I become ready for it and not fear revealing my own lowliness? 

M. Laitman: I think that this can be achieved through these exercises in the group. A person needs to subjugate himself to the group, arrange for himself such exercises, and Rabash writes about it, to practically, in practice, subjugate oneself before the group, let them feel that he accepts them as stronger, higher, more advanced, and he himself is nothing, but he's not only acting, but it's recommended that he comes to that inner feeling. Those are exercises we have to do. Look at what Rabash is doing. You haven't read his social writings in a while. Let us today, all day long, read Rabash's social writings. They're not typically long. You can read them in 15-20 minutes, and you'll see how many new points he's going to reveal there.

Question (KabU 2): (58:04) Must we work on changing our attitude towards how the Creator relates to us? 

M. Laitman: Repeat, please. You are breaking up. 

Student: Must we work on changing our attitude towards how the Creator relates to us? 

M. Laitman: That has to be a result of our efforts. Of course, we need to change our attitude to the Creator, from what we are now, tiny egoists, who are trying to use Him, exploit Him, until we change ourselves, again, according to the Creator. According to the same line. Until we get rid of Malchut, and we rise to the degree of Bina, whereby we want to stop working with my will to receive, in order to receive in any way, shape, or form. And we continue to work with it, only in order to bestow. This is from Bina up to Keter. And that's how we work. But the will to receive is inside, because without it, we cannot do anything. But here we rise above the will to receive, until we reach the degree of Bina. And here we use the will to receive in order to change it into a force of bestowal and practice. 

Question (MAK 17): (01:00:02) How, through lowliness, through patience, humbleness, do we come to…? 

M. Laitman: If you do it together with the friends, it will bring you joy. Not because it's the friends, but because in the connection between you, even in the saddest states, when you connect between you, you are approaching the upper light, and it brings you gladness and joy. 

Question (Kyiv 1): (01:00:38) We rise above ourselves, the way you drew here in the diagram, from aho to Bina. But what does it mean to, in this situation, do we keep ourselves in lowliness as well? The Creator writes that in each degree we have to maintain the lowliness. 

M. Laitman: Because the will to receive is in you, only in order for you to take it by the hand, just like you grab a snake, and you turn it, you invert it into a beneficial force. But you're not simply looking down at it. No, the higher we climb, the more we use our will to receive. It's going to be greater and greater, bigger and bigger. The will to receive will open up in such a way that we can't even feel right now what we have in it, what was prepared in it. The will to receive is, you could say, infinite. It's so that we would build through it our attitude towards all of creation. We remain in the will to receive, but we rise above it and because we rise above it, we begin to feel spirituality. And that's why it's so important to us to have the right discernment for all the parts of creation, and not to deride any part. 

Student: A person wants to rise above Malchut, and being incorporated in the friends of the Creator keeps throwing him into his Malchut. How does he maintain himself? 

M. Laitman: He understands and he feels that all those things come to him, so he would build higher and higher degrees. Read what it says in the Torah, in the Bible, the Old Testament, after Yosef, when his brothers came to him, seemingly those Ten Sefirot , and later the entire family. Yaakov also came to him, he was old by then, he then died in Egypt. And when Yaakov came to Egypt, Jacob, he met with Pharaoh, and he blessed Pharaoh. You understand that Pharaoh is a force that you need to bless, he's an expression of the biggest will to receive. It's for him that we enter Egypt, in order to acquire this great will to receive called Pharaoh, and with that, to come out of the Malchut and to rise, climb up to Bina, which is the land of Israel, and there to work on the will to receive that they took from Egypt, with the will to bestow that is found in the land of Israel. So, Yaakov blesses Pharaoh, because specifically, thanks to Pharaoh, they're able to then rise. Of course, half of the way, they're only coming out of the dominion of Pharaoh, from Malchut to Bina, but the other half of the way, from Bina to Keter, they are using him in order to reach the degree of the Creator. Because the Pharaoh is opposite the Creator, but on the same level as the Creator. As the Creator said, I've created the evil inclination. That's how we need to relate to creation. 

Student: When I want to rise to Bina to adhesion with the friends of the Creator, it throws me back to Pharaoh. Can I bless him correctly and raise it all to Keter? 

M. Laitman: You can't do it until you reach the degree of Bina in practice. Until you, before you come out of your will to receive, and you reach all the degrees of Katnut, of smallness, only then you begin to climb to the degrees of Katnut, of adulthood. 

Question (PT 31): (01:05:40) Is every unpleasant state that a person feels, is that removal, or when is it considered that a person is being pushed away? 

M. Laitman: Whenever a person feels he is being distanced, he is distanced. It's according to a person's feeling, and it's given to him for him to come closer. 

Student: When do we advance in hastening it? What is the difference between hastening it and in its time, when there are states of removal and unpleasant states? 

M. Laitman: It’s when with the help of the group, I do not disconnect myself from the understanding, from the awareness that we are always on the path, and all these actions of the Creator, and there is none else besides Him. And in this way, I never leave the process, and only through my connection with the group can I be connected continuously to the Creator. Why? This is the salient point. What does it mean that I am disconnected from the Creator? I am never connected with the Creator unless I am connected with that mold, the vessel, the vessel in which I feel the Creator. If I disconnect from the friends, from the group, I disconnect from the Creator. So, first of all, I need to maintain my connection with the friends. It seems to me that if I am connected to the Creator directly all the time, it's me and Him, one facing the other. That's enough. What else do we need? No, it's not enough. And it's not that same, that correct contact, that correct correction. Rather, if I am connected to the friends, and from within them I’m connected to the Creator, this is the right mold, the right formula, and then I do not disconnect. And if I disconnect, it's a sign I've lost connection with the Ten. And if I’m with the Creator and not with the Ten, it's a lie. It's, for the time being, something the Creator has given me so I can advance. But in truth, our goal is to construct this mold, this template from the vessel of Adam HaRishon, so this initial mold is the Ten. 

Reader: Dear Friends we will now continue to a live lesson with Rav. Before that Let’s sing a song.

Song: (01:08:50)