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

Daily Lesson (Morning) August 5, 2024.

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Letter 55.

Reader: Hello, we are reading in The Writings of Baal HaSulam. In Hebrew, it's page 757, we're reading the letter 55. You can find the study materials on our websites, Sviva Tova and Arvut, you can also send us questions live through our websites. Anyone asking a question here in the study hall is asked to stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth and speak loud and clear. The Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter 55.

Reading Letter: (00:36) Letter 55 1 Kislev, Tav-Reish-Tzadi-Bet, November 11, 1931, Jerusalem

To my dearest ...

Today I received your letter with the news about the sons, may the Creator give the blessing.

By and large, I had some contentment with that letter. Although you did not altogether refrain from giving bodily matters the lead here, too, there is still much of the point in the writing, as you yourself wrote.

As for your saying that I am angry or concerned about you for not writing me anything for two years now, it is how you feel. My reply is that although this feeling is not disappointing in general, it is disappointing in its form, as the Creator knows that nothing bad can come to me from those who perceive the body. As then, so now, I am the same: “Woe to this beauty that withers in this dust,” and from here are all my joys and sorrows.

Following this introduction, I will grant your wish. You wrote, “I ask very much that you will write me some innovations in the Torah.”

We should carefully consider the words of our sages, whose every word is like embers. They said, “An hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than all the life of the next world, and an hour of contentment in the next world is better than all the life of this world.” It seems as though the beginning and the end contradict one another, for once they determined that an hour of the next world is better than all the life of this world, they must be referring to the spiritual life in this world, meaning repentance and good deeds. After all, we cannot suspect that the Mishnah speaks of a life of imaginary pleasure, as it is for the wicked, the fools, and the insensitive.

Our sages have already instructed us: “The wicked, in their lives, are called ‘dead.’” That is, the form of life that the wicked can resemble, that form is death itself, the opposite of life and happiness. Thus, the death that the wicked perceives, being the absence of the perceived pleasure, is a false perception, since absence of bodily pleasure is not the opposite of life, to merit being defined as death.

Rather, the presence of bodily pleasures, which the wicked received and with which they rejoice, are woven for them into an iron partition that separates them from the life of lives, and they sink in the world of death, as it is written, “He is Satan; he is the evil inclination; he is the angel of death.”

Accordingly, it is evident that the words of the Mishnah, “the life of this world,” indicate the spiritual life in this world, for the words of the sages heal and they will not speak falsehood.

It was of this that they said, “An hour of contentment in this world is better.” Thus, why did they add, “An hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than all the life of the next world”? We must not press toward the part that repentance and good deeds require labor and patience, for which they are separated from the life of this world. This is why they first said, “An hour of contentment of this world” is better.

However, labor and exertion that are devoid of pleasure are better than the spiritual pleasure in this world, for it is even higher than all the life of the next world. However, such words are acceptable only among those with little knowledge. They will never be accepted by the wise. Our sages have already determined for us in The Zohar that “Where there is labor, there is the Sitra Achra [other side], for the Sitra Achra is in deficiency,” as are all who follow her. But regarding the Kedusha [holiness], there is wholeness there, and all who work in Kedusha are in wholeness, without any effort, and only in delights and happiness.

Before we delve into the heart of their words, I will thoroughly define for you the meaning of these words—“this world,” “the next [world]”—in the words of our sages. It is as presented in The Zohar in the title, Sefer HaBahir [The Book of the Bright One]: “Rabbi Rechimai was asked, ‘What is ‘the next world,’ and what is ‘in the future’?’ He replied to them, ‘In the next world and came.’” In other words, the abundance is still to come.

You can evidently see the difference between this world and the next world. This one is what we attain in the present or attained in the past. The next world, however, is what we have not attained, but which should come to us in the future, after some time. However, both speak of what one attains and receives in this world, since the meaning of the anticipated reward of the soul is presented in the above-mentioned Zohar, defined only in the words, “in the future.”

In other words, prior to the correction, people in this world are utterly unfit to receive it, but only the souls, which are devoid of bodies, or after the end of correction, when this world rises in the great merit of the world of Atzilut. Yet, we should not elaborate on it for now.

It is said, “Initially, our fathers were idol-worshippers. Now the Creator has brought us closer to His work, Terah, Abraham’s father,” etc. We must understand the intention of the sayer with this reference to Terah, Abraham’s father. Is it to remind us of the best of times, the time of our freedom?

But we find such as this in the Torah, as well, as it is written, “And Terah died in Haran. And the Lord said unto Abram, ‘Go forth from your country,’” etc. This proximity is perplexing and bewildering, for the first appearance of the Creator to the first father, who is the root and the kernel of all of Israel, and the entire correction containing all the hoped for abundance and happiness to be revealed to us, and the abundance in the worlds to all the righteous and the prophets from beginning to end.

It is so because the law in Kedusha [holiness] and spirituality is that the root contains within it all the offspring that come and appear because of it, as it was said about Adam HaRishon that he included all the souls that would appear in the world. Likewise, the firstborn includes all the children born after him, as is known in the books.

Thus, there should have been secession in several writings between Terah’s name and the first appearance of Abraham, for he is the root of everything, as said above.

Here I must explain the basis of idolatry. It is as the books write about the verse, “There shall be no foreign god within you.” It means that the Creator should not be to you like a stranger, since working for a stranger is a burden. This is why it is idol-worship [the literal translation of idol-worship is “foreign (strange) work”]. Rather, worshipping the Creator should be with love and joy, and then its place is in Kedusha, and not otherwise.

It is also said in the name of the Baal Shem Tov, “You shall have no other gods over Me,” for one who believes that there are other forces (over Me) besides the force of the Creator, who is called Elokim [God], is idol-worshipping, and this is profound.

It is so because a servant of the Creator does not need any change in the corporeal set up. It is beautifully and wondrously arranged, as written in the “Poem of Unification,” “You forgot none of Your wishes, nor missed a thing. You did not subtract, and You did not add, and You did not work in them in vain.”

The corporeal setup is arranged in such a way that all the people of the world will unite and be qualified for His work, as it is written, “All of the Lord’s works are for His sake.” This is the meaning of “There has never been joy before Him as the day when heaven and earth were created.” It is also written, “And God saw all that He had done, and behold, it was very good.”

However, it is arranged in a manner suitable for such work, suitable for the wonderful reward, which “Neither has the eye seen a God besides You.” This is the meaning of the work and the reward that are set up before us in this world, in corporeality.

We see here that any reward is according to the pain that the worker feels during the work. But the concept of labor and suffering that appear during the work is valued and measured according to the postponement of the payment from the time of the labor, for it is natural that the payment puts out and uproots the suffering from the labor. That is, it is not perceived as sorrow, not even a bit.

Think for yourself: If you swap a cow for a donkey, then you’ve received the contentment you feel with the donkey, completely equal to the cow. At the very least, it is not less than that, or you would not swap it for the donkey.

Likewise, if the owner paid the worshipper such payments and rewards that were not satisfactory for him, at least as much as before he worked, it is certain that he would not swap his work with the reward. After all, the worker’s intention is to gain and receive contentment through the swap, and not increase his sadness even more; this is clear to all and simple.

Indeed, there are exceptions, but this refers to the majority of people, for the real price of labor is true only in the majority of people, not in specific individuals.

But for all the above-said, common sense denies that at the end of the day, it seems that the body will not make rational calculations, and that it feels the work more or less as debt, and the payment does not put out the present fiery pain of labor.

But in truth, the calculation is correct, for the body does not enjoy or suffer from the future, but from the present. Therefore, if the owner paid the worker his payments in the present, meaning moment by moment, where for every feeling he would pay him a penny, there is no doubt that he would not feel his effort whatsoever, as the payments would put out the pain and uproot it.

But the owner will not do so. Rather, he pays his payments and the reward at the end of the work, after a day, a week, or a month. This is why the animal body, which does not enjoy or suffer from the future, will pain and worry, as it truly loses all its labor for the animal sensation.

It follows that the body that receives the payments did not work at all, and the body that worked did not receive a thing for it. This is why it is separated, for it enjoys only the present moment, and the sensation of the future feels for it like a foreign body.

Come and see: The merchant, owner of the shop, who really does receive his pay in the present, meaning for each minute that he troubles himself and suffers while serving the customers, really does not feel his effort whatsoever. On the contrary, he is delighted during the pay. The labor, which is tied to the pay, is uprooted for him. He is not like the worker who receives his salary in the evening and feels unhappiness and sorrow during this work.

This is what I said, that any sense of pain and suffering in reality is only for the removal of the payment from the time of the work. Also, if you scrutinize further you will find that according to the time gap between them, so the pain increases during the work, as accurately equal as two identical drops of water.

With the above said, we understand the two names, “righteous” and “wicked,” for one does not go idle in this world; we necessarily have some sense of the reason for our being in the world—for blessing or, God forbid, for cursing. That is, the blessing we are commanded to bless the Creator is done by itself.

Likewise, a rich person who gives a gift to a poor one knows for certain that the poor person blesses him for it. He does not need to lend his ear to what he utters from his mouth. But if a person strikes and curses another, he knows for certain that the other one is cursing him; he does not need to think about it.

Just so, one who enjoys being in the Creator’s world, at that time he is blessing his Maker, who has created him in order to delight him. He hardly needs to utter anything.

Conversely, when a person feels some pain while in the Creator’s world, at that time he does the opposite. And although he does not utter any condemnable words from his mouth, still, the feeling rules. This is the title “wicked,” for when he feels some pain, he necessarily condemns, as the grievance is expressed in the feeling itself, and need not be shown publicly.

Even if he utters a blessing, it is akin to blarney, like a landlord who is beating his servant while the servant is saying, “I so enjoy the beating; I am simply overjoyed.” It was said about the such, “He who speaks falsehood shall not be established.”

By these words you will also understand the definition of the title, “righteous.” It refers to a person who is in the world of the Creator, yet always receives good and pleasant sensations, and is in constant pleasure. For this reason, he always blesses the Creator, Who created him in order to furnish him with such a good and delightful world. He, too, certainly does not need to explicitly utter the words, for the feelings themselves are the blessings that he blesses the Creator, as explained in the above allegory. This is why he is called “righteous” [also “just”], for he justifies creation and feels it as it truly is, as it is written, “And God saw all that He had done, and behold, it was very good.”

This is the meaning of “A righteous lives by his faith.” It comes to teach us the power of the righteous, for it seems to be incomprehensible for an ordinary person since how can a person be in this world yet be spared pain and suffering? Even more perplexing, he is in constant pleasure. It seems to contradict reason.

And yet, with the above said, you will understand that the very concept of labor and pain that exist in life is present only in the form of removal of payment from the work. Therefore, although the payments can put out the suffering and uproot it, they do not affect him during the work, and he has time to experience them, as detailed above.

It is as the store owner, whose pain from the labor is completely uprooted. When he searches for it, it is gone during the payment and the servicing of the customers because the reward and the labor come together, without any time gap for the pain of labor to appear.

Now you will clearly understand the words of The Zohar, “Where there is labor, there is the Sitra Achra [other side], since she is deficient and all her works are in deficiency.” It is so because one who has been rewarded with complete faith, the future is to him exactly as the present; otherwise, it would not be considered complete.

For example, if a trusted person promises me something, it is as though I have actually received it. If my sensation is somewhat deficient, meaning that I feel it would be more pleasant if I actually received that thing, then that very extent is missing in my faith in him.

It is therefore obvious that a righteous person, who has been rewarded with complete faith—to the extent that our sages said, “Your employer is trusted to pay you the reward for your work”—necessarily feels every ounce of the pain of his labor in the payments he receives from the Creator, although he has not received them in the present. But for this, his faith illuminates for him completely, in a manner that the giving itself has no room for adding even the smallest bit of contentment.

Had the giving been slightly less valuable than the promise, even in the slightest bit, then he has yet to reach complete faith, and he would therefore not be considered righteous. However, he has necessarily reached the completion of faith, where the promise serves for him as giving, and he feels no division between future and present. Thus, he is like the store owner, for whom the pain from the labor cannot appear while he is serving the customers because the labor and the payment come together. This is the meaning of “A righteous lives by his faith.”

By this we can understand the words of The Zohar: “Where there is labor, there is the Sitra Achra, etc., and there is Kedusha only in wholeness.” It is a clear sign; if he has been rewarded with clinging to Kedusha, he has necessarily been rewarded with complete faith.

Therefore, from where did he get the sensation of labor? It must be that the Sitra Achra is on him because his faith is incomplete. Thus, he necessarily feels pain, and then he is called “wicked,” as detailed above at length.

This is the meaning of “The wicked, in their lives, are called ‘dead,’” The wicked is “short lived and full of anger,” and “A righteous lives by his faith.”

Now you will understand the philosophers’ question about our Torah in the commandment to love the Creator. By nature’s law, there cannot be commandments or coercion in love. Rather, it is something that comes by itself, etc., as they elaborated in their foolishness.

According to the above, you will understand the question here, about the Torah being given only to the children of Israel, who were rewarded first with complete faith, as it is written, “And they believed in the Lord and in His servant, Moses,” and also first to place “We shall do” before “We shall hear.”

In this manner we have attained all 613 Mitzvot [commandments] to do them with complete faith first, as it is known that this is the house’s door. Therefore, the extent of the words, “And you shall love the Lord your God,” depends completely on the individual, on trying as hard as one can to come to that perpetual level of always receiving abundance of sanctity, strength, and every delight in endless pleasure.

Then the love is guaranteed for him by itself, as it is arranged in the laws of nature, in a way that the measure of the love and its commandment are tantamount to our qualification to receive from Him endless pleasure, pleasantness upon pleasantness, as is the way with Kedusha—it increases.

This is certainly in our hands, meaning the correction of the faith. With this, the light of His love will certainly come by itself because the sensation of receiving the pleasure is itself the expression of love and blessing for the Giver, like a candle and its light, and this is simple.

Yehuda Leib

M. Laitman: Are there any questions? No?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:30) How can you truly feel every day that we are the Creator's partners, truly His partners, so that we will feel that this business that we're doing here is our business, just like it is His? Because I truly feel here in this whole letter that it's a journey of love, truly a journey. And I asked myself during this whole article, I was asking myself, how can I bring myself to such a feeling that I'm truly His partner. Since each and every moment, what we do here, we really want to feel the reward, so, I'm asking, truly, how do we do it?

M. Laitman: As we discussed many times, the realization is by connection. When we connect and we build such a society where in the connection between us, it is revealed to us. Everything depends on the degree of the connection as one man in one heart.

Student: This effort that we invest here, every day in strengthening the connection between us and with the Creator, this is actually the true essence of our life?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question: (Petah Tikva Center): (39:21) This letter covers many things but one point that grabbed me. He says, there, let's say that a person in the life of this world settles for or requires food, money, honor, etc., and he receives pleasures from that. My question is whether here, maybe if you'll give me permission, I'll look at the text and focus the question: Do we, in that state, let me ask a different question, can we say that pleasures and suffering are in fact, well, one can look at it in such a way, the other, if it's the same thing. Even the person himself can see in the suffering and pleasures depending on the point that he's looking from, can we see it in such a way that we look at it? Or I can maybe give an example, even. We talked about it in the past, that a person, for example, is on a certain degree and when he's happy, he feels good, but then he wants to develop, so he feels suffering. In the next degree, it repeats again, can we see it in such a way, Rav?

M. Laitman: I guess, yes, I don't know, if you felt it, then you can speak about it.

Student: Yes, I felt that, in the letter itself.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:22) The store owner in the shop receives his reward, simultaneously, at the same moment because he receives payment but it's in the will to receive. What about the righteous, in what vessel does he receive the pleasure? What is this vessel that we build?

M. Laitman: I think he has a vessel.

Student: It's a vessel of bestowal or?

M. Laitman: A vessel of bestowal, a vessel of faith, yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:59) What pleasure should the righteous receive in the future which he relates to in the present?

M. Laitman: A pleasure that fills him, entirely.

Student: What is the reward of the righteous that he is expecting in the future?

M. Laitman: That's the reward, it fills all of his vessels, it adheres him to the Creator.

Student: But he doesn't actually receive it in the present but he relates to the future reward as though he has already received it in the present, and for him it's the same.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How can that be?

M. Laitman: How, I don't know, when you reach it, you'll feel it, and you'll see it. I can't say how, it's like that.

Student: Can I ask a bit more? Why for him the future reward and the present is the same for him?

M. Laitman: That's the power of faith.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:20) To continue exactly that, he writes that in a place where there is labor, the Sitra Achra, the other side, is there because it resides in deficiency and all of its deeds are in deficiency. And this is because one who has been rewarded complete faith, the future serves for him just like the present, otherwise, it's not considered complete. It's just like an allegory that if a trusted person promises me something, it is as though I received this thing in my hand. So, how does the righteous work with faith? What depends on this feeling that the Creator can be trusted in His promise? On what does this feeling depend, how do we increase the faith, enlarge the faith?

M. Laitman: Because to the extent that a person takes upon himself more and more actions of bestowal, actually, he does them, it's as if he received it in the present.

Student: This, as if, this is exactly the faith?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, how do we enlarge it?

M. Laitman: He's telling you about it further down this Letter. This is done through faith, through adhesion in the Creator, through the people, the group.

Student: He says even more that the wicked, now during his labor, he's constantly searching for what now, in the present, what do I get right now, or I don't, and if I don't get it right now. So he's actually in grievances with the Creator. So, he condemns the Creator.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:30) The righteous should first go through the state of the wicked, right?

M. Laitman: It's likely that, yes.

Student: Otherwise, what does he justify over, what does he believe, what does he have faith in? So, the question is what differentiates the righteous from the wicked is that the righteous has already gone through it, and now he justifies. He seemingly shortened the time.

M. Laitman: Let's say that.

Student: So, what is this action that makes it shorter so that he can already be on that degree of righteous? How does he shift from one to the other?

M. Laitman: Adhesion to the friends, through his deeds, he shortens the time.

Student: Is there some transition between what he discovers, how he, when he condemns the Creator and then his action towards the friends? Is this what makes the connection, the transition?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:35) Can we say that the work is the reward, this is the desirable outcome. On the other hand, we can see friends, sometimes even after a year, suddenly, the balloon explodes in a moment.

M. Laitman: This can happen, and how? There is no righteous in the land that did good without sinning first.

Student: Meaning, on the one hand, the more we shorten the gap between the labor and the reward, this is a desirable path. On the other hand, how do we keep friends so that it doesn't explode, somehow?

M. Laitman: When everyone participates, everyone participates in this journey and that's how you move forward.

Student: How do we depict our participation in the journey? What should be there in this participation?

M. Laitman: When each one adds of himself to this common pot, the pot becomes ours without dividing it. And our labor and our exertion, everything becomes as one.

Student: This means that, on the one hand, there is participation, on the other hand, the amount keeps growing?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: The savings.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:30) What's the difference between justifying in thought and justifying in feeling?

M. Laitman: It's possible that for the time being, there's no difference for a person. But for us, it's important.

Student: If I justify in thought but not yet in feeling?

M. Laitman: In the thought, it's not, it's only scrutinies, initial scrutinies.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:30) First of all, it's an outstanding article, very moving. He says that the reason for the suffering is the gap between, it’s the difference between the working vessel and the time of the reward. He doesn't see the reward in the vessel of the work. And then the correction is the correction of faith.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: How can the light of faith calm the will to receive down? Or gives it a certain satisfaction or a certain pleasure?

M. Laitman: It's because the light of faith pertains or belongs to the root, to the Creator. This is why when it shines, the person receives from that the feeling of his connection with the upper force.

Student: It's clear if he first built a vessel for faith that the will to receive wants a reward.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: He doesn't understand what faith is, he can't grasp it. Nevertheless, he is the one who has to keep on working. The feeling, you may feel it but how does it happen when you have a will to receive and it, suddenly, calms down, it gets filled, it's satisfied from a different vessel, the vessel of faith that is full.

M. Laitman: But the desire that stands behind both of these, it receives an illumination. It receives an illumination.

Student: So, what happens with the will to receive itself that wanted something, a certain imaginary reward?

M. Laitman: The will to receive, as we understand, does not change, it doesn't become refined. Therefore, the person eventually, how shall I put it, how does he become organized, I don’t know? But he is in some sort of connection between faith and the will to receive, and the illumination that shines on him. And he has his previous discernments, and in such a way he nevertheless finds some connection between all of these for how to overcome and continue, it's not simple.

Student: Well, you used to give an example of a child who cries to his dad, I want a toy car. The dad says, soon, I'll give it to you soon, but then when he's finally ready, he gives him a real car. What happens with the desire for the toy car? That desire disappears, dissipates, what's happening with it?

M. Laitman: All of our desires become included in new vessels.

Student: So, the vessel of faith, that new vessel, contains everything that was before.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:25) I can detect that the developed will to receive, actually, wants to feel that it works for the Creator. And so long as it doesn't feel the Creator is receiving his work, it doesn't feel that he's working for the Creator, he's not satisfied, and that's the source of his disquiet. What causes, what method, what steps do we have to take for a person to feel that he's working for the Creator? Or even better, the Creator is receiving his work, I don't even know how to say if it's the same.

M. Laitman: Again?

Student: What are the steps that a person has to take to feel that the Creator is receiving, accepting his work, that he's working for the Creator?

M. Laitman: This will be a reward, or what?

Student: Yes, it seems like everything revolves around this point, who am I working for? If I will feel that I'm working for the Creator, I'm certain that I'm in good hands and he's certain to pay me all of my rewards. I can relax and be sure that I do not need to worry about the reward, it's in the hand of the Creator, and the Creator is the most faithful.

M. Laitman: Where do you take this faith from?

Student: From the feeling that you're working for Him.

M. Laitman: So this covers for you all of the reward, and the labor, and everything, the fact that you feel the Creator. So then?

Student: So then, in the absence of this, it's clear that you cannot remain calm. It makes sense because if you don't feel that you're working for Him, then you're certain, you know that you're not going to receive a reward because it's not for Him.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: So, the whole crux of the matter is to reach the feeling that you're working for the Creator, to receive such a certificate.

M. Laitman: How is that expressed?

Student: As a feeling?

M. Laitman: Meaning that I am working for Him, and He receives my work.

Student: Yes.

M. Laitman: So, isn't that a reward?

Student: Yes, but how can you do it, otherwise?

M. Laitman: That is the question. Indeed, seemingly otherwise, it's impossible.

Student: That's what I'm saying, it's impossible to do it otherwise. It's a sort of a calming effect in the will to receive.

M. Laitman: Yes, it's a filling, you bet. If I work for the Creator and He receives my work, there is no greater reward than that. But, how do I keep myself then that I'm not working for the reward?

Student: The question here is of the nature of the reward, he's not even telling me what is the reward. The important thing is that He's accepting my work.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: So, here there's a difference between the types of reward: There's a reward for someone who's looking for what he might get for working for the Creator. And another, a more advanced decision is, I just look to work for the Creator. The reward that He's going to give is His business. But nevertheless, the feeling, you have to reach the state where you feel that you're working for the Creator and without it, you cannot keep calm.

M. Laitman: You're right, according to our vessels, then I have to feel that way, otherwise.

Student: That's why I asked, how do we get to this feeling that we are working for the Creator?

M. Laitman: Is there any answer? You want to answer that, go ahead and answer.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:33) It's likely that a person is not satisfied when he's in the degree of Bina and the expected reward from Hochma, he has to rise above Hochma. So to be a complete righteous, he has to meet in the Keter. His faith is incomplete, he's a righteous, but he wants to be a complete righteous. So from Bina to rise to Keter, from Keter, he has that meeting with the Creator.

M. Laitman: So, what does he do in order to have the power, the power of faith, whatever you want to call it, so as to be completely whole with the Creator?

Student: The light of faith that he receives covers the vessel of Hochma and the vessel of Hassadim.

M. Laitman: Well, that is?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:34) Work in the Ten, to come to work for the friends as a springboard for love of others and from there to the Creator.

M. Laitman: Well, this is what they say.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:54) Without faith, you cannot advance. Faith is the most important thing. Therefore, if he expects a reward, as the friend said, to feel that I'm working for the Creator, it's incorrect work. Because the faith is extinguished, so therefore, you probably have to increase the importance of the Creator, belief in the sages, who say that in the end there will be a reward. And those who work and try to work without a reward for the sake of the friends, eventually the Creator testifies about him, the light of faith, as he writes in the article, sometimes every day, sometimes every month. But he's not working for that reward, he's working only in faith because that's the highest reward that he can work in faith. He can work against the will to receive without any reward, that's the highest form of reward that he can receive.

M. Laitman: Perhaps so. Perhaps.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:03) When we speak of fulfillment, we speak of light, we say light.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: So the question is they say it's the light of Nefesh, light of Ruach, those are the lights of the next world, the person who is rewarded in. And also they say the light of faith. It's not the same light, it's two things.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: So, the light of faith is a precursor to the light of the next world? Meaning we start, it's also something a person receives, the light of faith.

M. Laitman: Well, go ahead.

Student: So, what I understood is that the light of faith is a result of work in this world, between people. Meaning your annulment and your attitude that you construct relative to the other. The question is from the annulment and from a person's adherence to the words of the sages, and when he succeeds in completely annulling his will to receive and only remains with the words of the sages, that's the opening for faith?

M. Laitman: It's a question.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:32) A person relies only on what he feels. In the first few years, if he works correctly, as Kabbalists say, he receives a good sign. That's a testimony for him, he doesn't need anything more. He feels, he understands that he has a loyal, trusted Landlord that gives him the power to work.

M. Laitman: The need to feel that the employer can be trusted, it always is there and it grows. I don't think that's enough.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:21) I think the friend’s question was how to reach a state where we constantly feel that we're working for the Creator, that we're giving Him contentment?

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: I think the answer is from Lo Lishma you come to Lishma. In the beginning, just as he writes here, there's a gap between the work and the reward, and then there's suffering. Then you ask for the presence of the Creator to fill the suffering, it's still in order to receive. A person doesn't want to suffer, so he's asking for the presence of the Creator, the filling of the Creator for himself. From that, he becomes accustomed to working with this thing but he's not going to stay there because he's not going to receive it there. But from that, the light will shake him, will rattle him until he gets to a point where he's asking for the vessel of faith. We can ask for the vessel of faith just like that, we have no desire for it. But from the desire for the presence of the Creator to save ourselves the sufferings, here, we start the work from Lo Lishma to Lishma?

M. Laitman: Okay.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:28) I'll try to answer, the Creator arranges all kinds of situations, new situations, it switches every moment. In each moment, I have to think, I have to check, I have to scrutinize how we're not filling our vessels. How we're not looking to fill our vessels in this situation and this is ongoing work. I think that once we do it, I don't know what it means to work for the Creator but I know what it means to fill my vessels with that state. So, not to fill them, I guess that's bestowal, that's what we have to do.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:22) I didn't hear what they said, it's also not interesting to me.

M. Laitman: Don't say I'm not interested because by that you cut yourself off from all of this. And in that, you won't achieve anything. We have all kinds of different states, we go through all kinds of states. And you don't want to become incorporated in that, so how will you reach anything? Go ahead but at least in words, try to be proper, it's not that we're lowering you in your degree that you agree with everyone and you want to be connected with everyone. No, but this disregard, it prevents you from reaching spirituality, altogether, because you attain spirituality in the connection. In the connection you achieve spirituality as one man with one heart. The fact that you think that you are a mighty hero saying to everyone, I don't need you. It only testifies to the fact that you don't even understand the whole system of creation.

Student: No, no, it's not because I'm not interested in what he asked. It's because I wasn't impressed by it. I didn't feel the article, like what he wrote, I don't share that.

M. Laitman: Try to connect to the words of the friends as much as possible from your heart.

Student: But if you're not impressed by it?

M. Laitman: Do exercises, whatever the friends who are here say, they are in all kinds of different stages of the spiritual work. You want to be together with them.

Student: Even if it sounds like they landed from another planet. I mean, it's not relevant to me, that's what I mean.

M. Laitman: You will understand, the feeling, the knowledge will come precisely through such actions.

Student: I wanted to ask about what he said, that the labor is equal to the Sitra Achra because that's what you're required to do. Labor, effort, exertion, not results or successes. So why does he call it the Sitra Achra, the other side?

M. Laitman: It's called Sitra Achra because it brings you to the opposite, the opposite of where you need to reach.

Student: But why, labor is what's required, so why does it bring the opposite?

M. Laitman: No, because through the labor you discover that it is not the truth, that this is not the blessed path, that you are not advancing towards the Creator. That is, it doesn't matter what I feel but, here, the feeling notifies me about the fact that I'm walking on the right path or not.

Student: But the demand of Kabbalists from people is for them to exert this labor.

M. Laitman: But it depends on what, it's not just to exert.

Student: Of course not for nothing, I spoke about the work, itself. Where there is labor, there is Sitra Achra, so why, that's what you are asking? Are you condemning people, are you asking them to do it? To labor in the Torah, labor in the study, all those things. So, why do you say that where there is labor, there is the Sitra Achra?

M. Laitman: Okay, that's fine.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:56) There are two terms that we are using. One is labor or exertion. Well, exertion and labor, sorry. Exertion, let's say that a mother exerts with her son but she does it out of love; she works but she feels good. And labor, like a hassle. I don't feel like doing it, I'm suffering from it

M. Laitman: Let's say so.

Student: If I understood correctly, what we are learning from this letter is that we need to reach exertion, to reach love for the Creator. And what I couldn't grasp from his writing, is how in the work between us that we do, we try to resemble the Creator, to do certain actions with the friends, to care for them even in small things. How, from that, we come close to reach faith above reason, which is the answer to the confusion, here. Because without faith above reason, we can't reconcile all of this inside our mind on this action. How, from the connection between us, which grows stronger daily, from our work together, we manage to make this leap to the degree of loving the Creator? But as he writes here, to feel it from within, we don't need it now. It's like coercing myself to love the Creator, how do I do it? I do certain actions. I resemble the Creator, I try to resemble Him.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: How, from that, a person, eventually, acquires this above reason, the degree where whatever he got from the Creator, that's the reward. He doesn't need any more than that.

M. Laitman: Because in above reason, he makes himself similar to the Creator, right?

Student: He tries with the friends?

M. Laitman: He tries, so opposite that illumination from above comes to him, it shines on him. And this light gradually advances the person towards the truth.

Student: This light that comes, gradually, as you said, what will it change in me?

M. Laitman: It will sort the vessels in you, your thoughts, your desires, everything that you have.

Student: But it appears that with the passing of time, a person has more vessels to want to care for the friends. How does that bring me closer to loving the Creator, I can’t connect these two?

M. Laitman: Because you begin more and more to tie yourself to others, to what is outside of you. You receive a certain excitement, impression, and then you reach a state where you can work with these vessels that connect you to the Creator.

Student: There will be a point where the friend, I'll see the Creator behind him, in front of him, something, yes?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:34) Same point, he writes here, on the one hand, that there's a gap between the exertion, the labor and the reward that causes suffering, torment. On the other hand, he says that in the exertion, in the effort, this is our path, unlike philosophers and such. He explains that love the Lord, your God, depends completely on the individual, on trying as hard as one can to come to that perpetual level of always receiving abundance of sanctity. I'm trying to understand what covers the gap for a person between the exertion, for which he's not receiving a reward, otherwise it falls into his ego? And still it's not considered Sitra Achra, that he falls. We live in this work on a bridge between the effort and the fact that in this effort, there's a certain fulfillment, certain satisfaction that does not annul the ego. You're allowed to receive it, on the other hand, it gives a person fulfillment. What is that thing?

M. Laitman: The light of Hassadim, the light of Hassadim.

Student: Can you say what it means?

M. Laitman: It's actually what connects between the will to receive and the will to bestow, in order to receive and in order to bestow. There's, so to speak, the annulment of the Creator and the annulment of the created being, there.

Student: So, there's like additional life in that effort of a person to come out of himself, that he's like on a thin line.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:50) I guess that I want to continue the friend’s question that a person feels bad. So it's like a curse, that he's not happy in the world that the Creator made. So for him, the work and the reward aren't in the same place. That's the reason?

M. Laitman: If the work is here and the reward is there, then I cannot tie my work together with my reward. And then I don't understand why to do the work.

Student: And then he continues explaining in the letter that there's the burden, or the deficiency, but that's not part of holiness anymore, it's part of the Sitra Achra, the other side, if he feels the difference between the present and future. So, in the end of the letter, it seems to me that he says that the reason for it is that his faith isn't whole, not complete. That's the whole reason, here.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, if you checked, you scrutinized, and you discovered that you're lacking faith, what should you do?

M. Laitman: He lacks faith?

Student: Yes.

M. Laitman: He prays.

Student: How does that affect the quality or quantity of faith?

M. Laitman: The Creator gives, faith is a special illumination that comes to the person from above. And the person can then perform acts of bestowal.

Student: So, when he writes that it's in our hands to correct faith, what's correcting faith?

M. Laitman: That the light of faith will shine upon us.

Student: So, what's in our hands if we want to correct faith?

M. Laitman: Pray.

Student: If a person discovers he has lack of faith and he has to correct it, so he has to see how to pray?

M. Laitman: He needs to see if he's asking the Creator correctly and sufficiently for the light of faith.

Student: And what's the role of the Ten in correcting faith?

M. Laitman: Together, together with him.

Student: How does it work that a person completes his faith as a result of the influence of society?

M. Laitman: That offers everyone, how to put it? It offers them strength, power.

Student: Can you say that if there's a lack of participation of a person in the Arvut of the group, from that he got a lack of faith?

M. Laitman: It could be for many reasons.

Student: So, not only that?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:18:29) We learn that the Creator likes when we ask from Him.

M. Laitman: Well, it could be.

Student: If we could, I'd like to read something from the letter that he said, that the Baal Shem Tov said, you will not have any other God over me because he who believes that there are other forces except for me, that is an idol worshiper.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And this is deep because the one who works for the Creator does not need any changes in corporeality.

M. Laitman: Well?

Student: And the corporeal campaign is organized in a way that all people of the world will be worthy to work for Him, and there will not be greater happiness. So, everything's organized, everything's whole, so, where is the deficiency from? What deficiency does the Creator want if we don't expect for any change in the corporeal system?

M. Laitman: We want only one thing, for the example, the correct lack to be revealed to us, which is the lack of faith. And then we will be able to assemble, to stabilize, shape, the light of faith in front of us, and so to advance.

Student: How to depict the corporeal reality that, on one hand, the Creator's worker doesn't want to change it; on the other hand, he wants to use it.

M. Laitman: Yes, he wants to be included.

Student: To include it, so how do you include it? What do you take from this, that it's called that I don't want to change it but I use it and include it?

M. Laitman: That is the work, where I discover in what ways I can change the system and I pray, that's it.

Question (PT 33): (01:21:59) Exertion is work, and a burden is work that is supposedly not good, it brings you to the other side. What's the difference between exertion and a burden?

M. Laitman: Exertion is when a person explores and scrutinizes the place where he needs to attach himself in order to attain the vessels of bestowal. And toil, burden, is when, like a little child, he just wants to see himself as coming closer to fulfillment, to satiation.

Question (PT 22): (01:22:47) How to turn a feeling of burden to a feeling of holiness.

M. Laitman: Again?

Student: How to turn a feeling of burden to a feeling of holiness.

M. Laitman: Through scrutiny, scrutiny, seeing the extent to which I understand that I am within the intention to receive, that it's toil for me, a burden and then the extent to which from that I try to rise towards in order to bestow, which is then called holiness, sanctity.

Question (Haifa 1 and KabU 2): (01:23:34) Can you feel reward and exertion coming as one?

M. Laitman: When the Ten arrives as one?

Student: That also the effort and also the reward are one, can you feel it?

M. Laitman: But that's in the end, already, not in the beginning.

Student: How do you reach it, what do you do?

M. Laitman: Have them make an effort, then we'll see.

Student: Is the light of faith surrounding light?

M. Laitman: No.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:24:20) Is complete faith in the Creator personal, or can the Ten have to come parallel to unity?

M. Laitman: The light of faith is the light of Hassadim, which fills up all the vessels of bestowal.

Question (Kyiv 3): (01:24:46) The righteous is different from the wicked in that in his force of faith he can justify all the blows. But does he feel the blows or does he just not get them?

M. Laitman: You'll reach his degree and then you'll know, you'll feel.

Reader: That's it for now.

M. Laitman: All right.

Question (Darom 1): (01:25:20) It's written, let's say after the morning lesson during the day, I go through a state that the feeling becomes bad. So, according to what Baal HaSulam writes, in that moment, I slander the Creator.

M. Laitman: Of course.

Student: So, what happens is that the Creator is showing me where I need to correct myself in that moment and what I need to do. So I can go to the Ten, I can do a lot of things but to say thank you to the Creator who gave me a place to work. But instead of condemning Him, I want to justify Him. So, there's daily work of everybody that we go through these states alone. I wanted to ask if you could give us a few lessons on that important topic: How to work and correct every moment that I feel bad in the Ten. Can we learn about it?

M. Laitman: That, you all need to learn from life.

Student: Yes, that's right but, still, what should the friends do in that exact moment? Should they raise a prayer, how to do it? It's complex.

M. Laitman: This you all have to understand and feel and do, yourselves.

Student: If we should feel that that's the main part. And along with the work and unity, each one has to feel that during the day, from one state to the next, he has to put weight on that work and concentrate on it.

M. Laitman: Yes, of course.

Student: Okay, I think it's important if we feel that that is the work. And from that work, along with unity, we'll advance.

Question (Moscow 6): (01:28:18) Baal HaSulam writes here that it is better to repent one hour in this world than the whole life of the next world. What does he mean? What's one hour of repentance in this world?

M. Laitman: In one hour, here, we can do so much more. Not that we can our whole lives but a very long time, many actions in the upper world.

Student: How to implement such an hour?

M. Laitman: Make an effort and ask.

Question (PT 22): (01:29:13) To adhere to the Creator, is that a pleasure?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Where is that pleasure felt?

M. Laitman: In the vessels of bestowal.

Student: The purpose of creation is to give joy to the created beings.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: We know he wants that, that we enjoy ourselves, so, what's the problem in feeling that joy? It sounds like everybody's getting confused around that but He just wants us to enjoy. So, what stops us from just asking for it and enjoying it?

M. Laitman: The issue is that the pleasure that He understands that we need to receive and enjoy is completely different to the pleasure we think we should receive and enjoy.

Student: But why should we burden so much for us to understand what He wants us to enjoy? Why is He making it so difficult because He wants us to enjoy, He wants to give us good? And I believe that's what He wanted when He created it. And I hear the friends here and I hear everybody. Why does He make it so difficult for the friends?

M. Laitman: Yes, it's difficult because we're not yet with the correct vessels.

Student: So, it brings us back to prayer again.

M. Laitman: Yes, everything is attained by the power of prayer.

Question (ITA 1): (01:31:22) The light of mercy supports our efforts. How do we know that this light doesn't come from our pride but comes from the Creator?

M. Laitman: The light of Hassadim can't come out of pride and whatever actions of reception we take. But only acts of bestowal.

Question (Unity 3): (01:32:09) About the correction of faith: When I come closer to the friends in love, I don't expect anything bad to come out of them. And that means that I receive light with no delay. Is that correcting faith?

M. Laitman: Well, if I truly want to bestow, to work for others, then it's a vessel of bestowal.

Question (Kyiv 1): (01:33:20) It's written here that the place of work is the place of Sitra Achra, the other side, and that the reward is in holiness. What does it mean that we make an effort, let's say in our world, we connect with the friends. Where should we pass ourselves to, and that the reward will be in holiness?

M. Laitman: So long as we're still in our egoistic desires, our efforts all have to go through this very hard barrier. The moment we acquire the quality of bestowal, the effort vanishes, disappears. And we are in pleasure, weightless, lightly acquire the quality of bestowal, and then we're in spirituality, that's all.

Student: So, it turns out that on one hand we do need efforts in this world but the reward always comes from a different state, not from the state we're in today. How every time to raise ourselves to the quality of bestowal, on the other hand, that it won't annul our efforts in this world?

M. Laitman: You will see that as you go. You'll discover it in the states you'll go through.

Question (Turkiye 2): (01:35:12) At what stage can I break the resistance of the evil inclination that's stopping me from yearning to study?

M. Laitman: We need to make efforts to rise above the evil inclination towards the inclination to bestow, the will to bestow. And not think that it has to disappear, it doesn't happen so quickly. It's only when we actually transcend it, rise above it, then we'll be able to work above the evil inclination.

Question (Latin 1): (01:36:18) How is the vessel of Hassadim, mercy, built in the group?

M. Laitman: Out of mutual bestowal. Each one thinks about bestowing to his friend and so, all in all, we establish the force of bestowal between us, and we can then ascribe it to the Creator, aim it at the Creator. Maybe that's enough. Let's continue to the next part.

Reader: So, let's sing a song first.

Song: (01:37:05)

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