The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson August 7, 2026
Part 1: Rabash. The Lord Is Near to All Who Call upon Him. Article No. 29, 1985.
Reader: Hello everyone! In the first part, we will learn from a lesson of the Rav from the date of July 24, 2002. The lesson is based on the article, The Lord Is Near to All Who Call Upon Him. The article can be found on kabbalahmedia.info., it is Article Number 29 from 1985. We will read the article now, for the next seventeen minutes.
Reading: (00:44) The Lord Is Near to All Who Call upon Him
Article No. 29, 1985
It is written in The Zohar, Hukat (item 78): “From this we learn that anyone who wishes to evoke things above—in an act or in a word—if that act or that word is not done properly, nothing is evoked. All the people in the world go to the synagogue to evoke a matter above, but few are the ones who know how to evoke. The Creator is near to all those who know how to call upon Him and to evoke a matter properly. But if they do not know how to call upon Him, He is not close, as it is written, ‘The Lord is near to all those who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.’ What is ‘in truth’? ‘In truth’ means that they know how to properly evoke a true matter. So it is in everything.”
This means that one who does not know how to call upon Him should not go to the synagogue because if he does not know how to call upon Him, it means that his prayer is not accepted. Thus, there is an excuse here, so he explained that it is not enough to not go to the synagogue because he does not know how to call upon Him. Therefore, one should know what to do in order to know how to call upon Him and be close to the Creator.
The Zohar comes and explains to us about that what we should know, and then we should exert to come to know it. It says that knowing is only truth, that one who calls upon Him in truth is close to the Creator. Accordingly, if knowing means that he called upon Him in truth, what is new here when he says that with the Creator it means that there must be special knowledge in order to call upon the Creator? The meaning of the verse that says, “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,” is that it is without exceptions, meaning that He is close to everyone, without exceptions. Afterwards the verse ends with a condition, which appears to be a major stipulation. What is the condition? He should call upon Him in truth! This is the principal condition required of man.
Regarding this principal condition required of man, which is called “truth,” usually, when someone calls another person, if the other person knows that he is calling him falsely, he is bound to ignore his calling him because he knows that he is calling him falsely, so he pretends not to hear him, since he is calling him falsely.
Thus, what is the principal condition required of man? Certainly, when it comes to the Creator there must be special requirements that do not apply to people, but this condition, that we must call upon Him in truth, is the smallest requirement that can be. Indeed, there is a special intention here in the stipulation of truth, and this intention is called “in truth.”
To understand the meaning of truth we should precede with the words of our sages: “Anyone who is proud, the Creator says, ‘He and I cannot dwell in the same abode.’” We should ask, “Why should the Creator care if he is proud?” If a person walks into a hen house and sees that one rooster is showing vanity over another, is the person impressed by that? Baal HaSulam said that the Creator loves the truth and cannot tolerate falsehood, as it is written, “He who speaks lies will not be established before My eyes.”
Indeed, the Creator created man with a desire to receive, which is the self-love that there is in him. This is the source of all the evil lusts that exist in the world, namely thefts, murders, and wars, they all stem from man’s will to receive. It follows that the Creator created man in utter lowliness, and he takes pride, meaning says that he is not like others. It follows that he is lying, and truth does not tolerate lies.
According to the above, if a person comes to the synagogue to ask the Creator to hear his prayer because he deserves to be heard by the Creator—to be given because he deserves, to be given by the Creator more than He gives to others, even when this concerns spirituality—then he is far from the Creator, since falsehood is far from the truth. This is why it is considered that he does not know how to call upon Him, since he is calling the Creator with a lie, and this is called “far” and not “near,” according to the spiritual law that “nearness means equivalence of form, and remoteness means disparity of form.”
Since there is no greater disparity of form than between truth and falsehood, it is regarded that he does not know how to call upon Him. The Creator is not close to him because when he is asking during the prayer, he is in falsehood for he feels that he is more virtuous than others because he sees all his faults in others. For this reason, he wants the Creator to help him.
But in truth, it is as our sages said (Kidushin, p 70), “Anyone who flaws is flawed and does not speak in praise of the world. And Shmuel said, ‘faults in his own fault.’” Because there are people who always look at others. If the other is learning as he understands or prays as he understands, then the other is fine. If he is not fine then he has found a flaw in the other.
This is similar to what Baal HaSulam said, that among the jealous there is a custom where if someone is more meticulous than him [in observing commandments], he is called “frumer” [derogatory term: overly pious], meaning too extreme. There is no point mentioning this person and it’s a waste to even think about him. But if he is less devout than him he says that the other person is far too lenient and should be persecuted to the point of banning, so he does not defile others.
That person, who comes to pray to the Creator to bring him closer because he is virtuous, is remote from the Creator, meaning in disparity of form from the Creator, since the Creator’s quality is truth, and that man’s quality is all falsehood. Therefore, it is regarded as the Creator being far from him, and therefore does not hear him.
We should ask, “If ‘the whole earth is full of His glory,’ what does it mean that the Creator is far from him?” It is as one who is standing far from another, and does not hear his voice. Therefore, in spirituality, it is known that the measure of remoteness and nearness depends on the equivalence or disparity of form.
But if a person comes to pray to the Creator and says to Him, “You must help me more than others, since others do not need Your help that much because they are more qualified than I, and are not as immersed in self-love as I am, and have better self-discipline than I, and I see that I need Your help more than the rest of the people, since I feel my lowliness, that I am farther from You than everyone and I have come to feel as it is written, “We have no redeeming and delivering King but You.”
It follows that his argument is true, and such arguments the Creator tolerates because they are true. It was said about this, “I am the Lord, who dwells with them in the midst of their impurity.” That is, although they are immersed in self-love, which is the source of impurity, since he is making a true argument, the Creator is close to him because truth with truth means equivalence of form, and equivalence of form is called “near.”
By this we will understand the question of the holy Zohar, which implies that one who does not know how to call upon Him has no reason to go to the synagogue because the Creator will not hear his voice because he is far from the Creator if he does not know how to call upon Him. And another perplexity is that this contradicts the verse, “The Lord is high and the low will see” (Psalms 138). And what is the meaning of “low”? It is one who knows nothing, not even know how to call upon Him; he, too, will see.
With the above we will thoroughly understand that he does not need to know anything, but only his true spiritual state—that he does not know any wisdom and any moral word that will help him, and he is in the worst possible state that can be in the world. And if the Creator does not help him, he is lost. This is the only thing he needs to know—that he does not know anything and that he is the lowest of everyone. If he does not feel it, but thinks that there are worse people, then he is already in falsehood and already in remoteness from the Creator.
By this we will understand the second question we asked, “What can he do in order to know how to call upon Him and be closer to Him? What should he learn in order to know? In that state, he is told that he does not need to learn anything special but simply try to walk on the path of truth, and then he will have what to pray for, meaning for necessity and not for luxuries, as it is written (Psalms, 33), “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope for His mercy, to deliver their souls from death and to keep them alive in famine,” or simply, the he needs spiritual life.
By this we will interpret the verse, “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,” without exception. And the condition he states, “to all who call upon Him in truth,” is not regarded as a special condition. But among children, if one calls another, and he knows that he is lying, he will not mind him. But here, with the Creator, we should know to what the matter of truth pertains. It is difficult for one to know for himself what a state of truth is and what a state of falsehood is, since one cannot see the truth. Hence, he needs a guide to guide him and tell him what he lacks, and what he has, and even redundancies that interfere with his reaching the truth.
This is the meaning of “Seek the Lord while He is present; call upon Him while He is near.” Certainly, we find him when He is near. But where is the place called “near”? It is as was said above, “to all who call upon Him in truth.” If a person calls upon Him from his real state, one finds Him.
To guide him and tell him what he lacks, and what he has, and even redundancies that interfere with his reaching the truth. This is the meaning of, "Seek the Lord while He is present; call upon Him while He is near." Certainly we find Him when He is near. But where is the place called "near"? It is, as was said above, "to all who call upon Him in truth." If a person calls upon Him from his real state, one finds Him.
Reader: We'll go to the lesson from the 24th of July, 2002.
M. Laitman: (17:46) We read an article from Shlavei HaSulam, Volume 3, page 157, Parashat Chukat, Whoever Wishes to Awaken Things Above. The reality we exist in is a fixed reality beyond what we are able to feel. There is the Creator and there is the created being, the Creator and the created being exist in a fixed, perfect state with nothing more and nothing less and nothing changes. When the Creator wished to delight the created being, He created the created being in a state from which nothing is lacking. The state is precisely suited to the degree of the Creator and the created being exists in it. All the changes in the created being's sensation of where it is are only the inner sensation of the created being. Baal HaSulam illustrates this with the example of a person who is unconscious and gradually regains consciousness; or someone who is in a basement and little by little the lights in the basement are turned on and then he sees what is there with him in the basement. The basement, from being a closed, dark place, full of filth and completely devoid of anything good becomes a perfect place filled with every good thing and so on. It depends only on the preparation of the created being, how exactly it aligns itself with the existing state. The existing state is called the Creator, it is the state in which the created being exists: The end of the act is in the initial thought. There is no difference between the beginning, the end, or the middle, when we speak about the created being, we're speaking about the development of its sense and how to perceive the correct state in which it exists. This is called the wisdom of perception, the wisdom of Kabbalah.
What does it depend on? The development of the sixth sense, of the soul, depends on the questions it asks, that is, on its deficiencies. Anything can be felt only out of a deficiency, to the extent that the deficincy is closer to the true state, that is, to the perfection and eternity of the Creator. So the created being feels the state more truthfully; therefore, each time, the work of the created being includes several stages. The first stage is to emerge from a lack of sensation into a minimal sensation, that is, it crosses the barrier and begins to understand and feel that it truly exists in a state that is altogether called the Creator. Its environment, its inner state, everything as a whole, both outside and inside, everything is called the Creator, and the created being is only that point that feels everything is the Creator. Then, that point begins to grow and to feel within itself according to the deficiencies revealed in it that the contact, the state between the created being and the Creator undergoes changes until the created being acquires, together with the sensation of the Creator, independence and the sensation of adhesion which also includes the sensation of, I, and, He, and so on. Everything depends on the deficiency because nothing can be felt except within the deficiency of the created being.
(22:59) This first point, the revelation of this first deficiency is what the Creator created as existence from absence. Upon this first point, the created being needs to build a vessel. This vessel for sensing the true reality is built from the point of deficiency of existence from absence; and from the Creator's qualities which the created being gradually copies into itself. That is, we have Malchut which is the point of existence from absence and the first nine Sefirot that the created being adds to itself, are the Creator's qualities that it reveals. To the extent that it reveals the Creator's qualities and realizes them, acquires them, and works with them until they become its own. Accordingly, according to the law of equivalence of form, it feels the state in which it truly exists and thus it progresses. Each time the created being wants to progress—progress can only be in one direction, to a stronger sensation of the true reality—accordingly, the vessel needs to become greater and truer. Its greatness depends on the authenticity of the question, the authenticity of the deficiency. Each time, the deficiency should not merely be greater, it needs to be aimed at bestowal, at the quality of the goal. That comes first, and then afterward comes the quantity, because quantity can also exist in opposition to the truth, in falsehood. There, too, great desires rule and if a person enters into great desires that are of the opposite quality, that is, not in order to bestow but in order to receive, then that already demands correction. Certainly, these states are necessary and one needs to go through them as in, The advantage of the light from within the darkness. However, the goal to which we should aspire needs to be the intention to bestow. Don't forget that what we call the Creator is the desire to bestow goodness upon His creations. And it is this that we need to reach the knowledge of and resemble. Therefore, each time, the vessel must become more genuine, more similar to the form of bestowal, and it is forbidden to forget that.
For every yearning for the Creator, whenever a person yearns for Him and feels it in the heart, he needs to correctly decipher what his yearning, truly, is: is it for the Creator, in that he feels himself dissatisfied, in that he feels himself somewhat lacking, or does he feel that he lacks the Creator's qualities? Therefore, whoever wishes to awaken things above needs to know that it can be done only with a true vessel according to the equivalence of form between the things that truly exist above and one's own desire. To awaken above means to contend with all kinds of disturbances in order to create in the vessel a desire that is equivalent to what exists above, with similar qualities. This is called awakening a desire from above, as we say, May it be Your will; give us a vessel that will be a true vessel toward You, before You.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:08) He says here that in order to awaken these things above, a person needs to turn to the path of truth and he says that the truth is such that each person needs to see himself as the lowliest. Compared to all these people studying, he needs to see himself as the very worst, the one who is most distant and incapable of it, so how to reach that state? You say that the first stage is crossing the barrier. How to reach the right demand for this, to truly reach the feeling that I am the lowest of anyone here? Everyone here, they are all much better than I, much closer than I, how to bring about that feeling?
M. Laitman: If a deficiency that we can theoretically place before ourselves cannot, through my own desire, enter my vessel and become that way—I theoretically want now to be an angel, not wanting to think about myself at all. Well, how can I realize this desire? It could be that between me and this desire, there are another eighty, a hundred, I don't know how many states that I don't even know and I don't know through what form of cause and effect I am still supposed to pass before maybe reaching this desire. What I imagined to myself about what it means to bestow, to be an angel, to be one who desires mercy, Chafetz Chesed, delights in mercy From where can I now, when I am not yet in this desire, imagine this desire? It's impossible, they're just words, therefore, a person should not determine any form for themselves, that this is how I want it to be, that it needs to fit myself precisely in such a framework, such boundaries, such a form, you know? It's impossible, it is simply, I don't know—desire is something solid and to take it and turn it into another desire, it's not in a person's power. We just don't understand how much deeper it is.
Therefore, what does remain for us to do is to use all kinds of means so that our desire will change, that's it. Kabbalah speaks about these means: they are books that awaken the surrounding light, a group that awakens a general deficiency for this, correct guidance, that is all. Certainly, in the end, through the surrounding light of the group and the Rav, what I want is a change in my desire because when the desire improves and reaches some better dimension, closer to the truth, then I will feel the truth. According to the desire, I determine my spiritual degree, yes? But I have no possibility of directly influencing the desire. I cannot change it. Only through these means: the group, the Rav, the book.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:52) How can I tell what the next stage is that I'm supposed to reach?
M. Laitman: You never know the next stage you're supposed to reach, you'll never know – it is always a surprise! You will never know because between the degrees, between spiritual states, there is always a break. From now until Malchut of Ein Sof, this break exists each time between one state and the next. We see this with Galgalta and AB where although Galgalta underwent refinement and the screen rose to the Peh of Rosh and, seemingly, there's nothing and nothing remains of it. Afterward the Reshimot of Dalet-Gimel emerge; these Reshimot of Dalet-Gimel, although they emerge after the refinement of Galgalta, do not belong to Galgalta. In truth, Malchut of Ein Sof awakens them, so when you pass from one state to another, you just realize the Reshimo so that it will come into action, you will realize the record so that it will come into action. The Reshimo itself is already inside, you cannot touch it at all, what you do is merely let it now reach realization. That alone, and what is the next Reshimo, what's the next record? You have no idea, no idea. Even Galgalta, until it completes its action from above downward through its refinement, it does not think. It does not know, it does not feel, it has no connection whatsoever with the Reshimo of AB. With the record of AB, we will learn that the lower spiritual degrees, afterward, are such that there is always – how should I put it – a break between the Malchut of the upper one and the Keter of the lower one which is the inversion of existence and absence or as he says, A seed that you put into the ground until a plant grows from it, right? Then, it has to rot and it needs to rot completely – that is, every degree needs to completely lose its form and exist only as the cause of the next degree. Nothing passes from it to the next degree except for pressing the button, so-to-speak, that lets the next degree emerge now, that's it. Therefore, every state is a state entirely unto itself, completely separate. Like one slice completely cut off from the next and only at the end, at the end of correction, do these slices join together. There's also a transition from state to state but for our purposes, what I'm saying now is correct. You cannot, with regard to the desire—I'm speaking from the perspective of the desire, not from the perspective of attainment nor from the perspective of all kinds of other things that already pertain to the feeling, but as far as the desire is concerned—you can never take anything from the previous desire into the present desire or into the next desire. Nothing, nothing, each time you receive a Reshimo—a record and the next Reshimo in line.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:17) Is there such a thing as the collective record of a group or is it just an environment that enables each one to produce his own records?
M. Laitman: There is such a concept as a common, collective Reshimo or record of a group, provided that it's truly a group. Then there is as with Rabbi Shimon and his group, ten Sefirot which is one vessel, without that vessel, the Zohar would not have been revealed, you understand? We see in the Zohar how either Rabbi Abba or Rabbi Yossi or Rabbi Yehuda speaks about all kinds of discernments, about each and every one and the role each has in revealing the final state. Certainly, if Rabbi Shimon had been alone, he would not have been able to write it. Without Rabbi Abba, he writes that it would have been impossible because of the seemingly external language, so-to-speak. There are many things involved in this but even without that, it's simply one vessel, it's ten students, it's ten Sefirot – it's literally a Ten. Rabbi Shimon is only the first.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:30) What do you need to look for in the group to reach its collective, common record?
M. Laitman: There needs to be a vessel in the group, a group means that each person must have a spiritual role. I hope, with the Creator's help, that the group will truly be built. Whoever enters this group one day, this spiritual group, and it will truly be on condition that each and every person, with his character and his spiritual role, takes on a particular form of work that is truly characteristic of him. And through connection with several others like him, the vessel will become created. In this vessel, it will be possible to receive a revelation no less than that of Rabbi Shimon, truly, even the end of correction, all the way to the end. But without such a vessel, there's no point even thinking about anything; without this vessel, maybe each person individually can attain something but not much. In our time, the period has ended, the time has already passed when there were exceptional individual Kabbalists. When each one, separately, was the one of his generation or there were only a few. Now, what is needed is work that is truly group work. Baal HaSulam writes about that, it is already clear to him that everything depends on the group. He writes that our entire good future depends on this. What about love of friends, does he write about it for no reason, does he care whether there is love of friends or not? What matters to him is making corrections that cannot be made without connection so there is no other way. The connection can be in small groups, it does not have to be such a large group, at least there should be six, seven, ten, altogether.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:08) What is the group's vessel? How is it different from my vessel, let's say, without the group?
M. Laitman: The group is different from your vessel in that you are small. You are alone, isolated, weak. If, yesterday, you could not do anything and today you can do a little more, then all the others work in your place and suppose everyone is working at one hundred percent with upliftment and awakening in all their strengths. Even when everyone is working at a hundred percent, a group does not mean that you gather ten desires. A spiritual vessel is built from the desire of one toward another. If spirituality is in order to bestow – not to think about myself but about someone else – then when you connect with a friend whom you are thinking about, your desire toward him, not your desire for yourself, that is actually the spiritual vessel. It turns out that if there are ten people and each one is thinking about reaching spirituality, then they have ten desires for spirituality. They awaken the surrounding light upon themselves – certainly – but each one awakens his own surrounding light. When they study together, they awaken the surrounding light upon everyone even though they are not so connected with one another but this is still not a spiritual vessel, it is still surrounding light. Instead, a spiritual vessel is a vessel that is built between people, not in each and every person, not in each person's desire but in the desire between me and you, between you and him, and so on. Do you understand, that is, it is a vessel that exists between us. If you draw ten points, then each of them is like a soul, yes, a root of a soul. Then, between these points, draw the vessel between the first and the second, between the second and the third—that is the vessel. If that is the case, then it is clear that if one person is special, what is called an exceptional individual, then that is fine. He has such a great vessel and from above he has a role, so he enters spirituality and carries out his role. But if we are talking about the general correction of the souls toward the end of correction, then it is as they say: Without a connection between the souls so that, in the space between them, in the relationship between them, the vessel becomes formed, there is nothing to talk about.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:14) How do I build this vessel between us?
M. Laitman: Well, how do you build the vessel? You connect with other people and slowly, from the desire to reach the goal, you come to feel that you have no alternative but to be connected with them. The thing is, this is not the Creator's desire, this, but this is, rather, the most proper means by which to reveal that proper desire. As we discussed now in the article, a person needs to constantly reveal a more correct desire, what is a more correct desire? Because the goal appears to us through such words, such forms, completely dissimilar to what it actually is. Meaning, we don't know what, to bestow, means. We don't know what Chafetz Chesed, seeking grace, is. We don't know what it means to disconnect from the self. We don't know that and what we do know is also all a lie. In order to teach a person, he was given people all around him and through them he'll learn how he's opposite to that and so on. It's like in a laboratory, you can do exercises, conduct experiments, and see the results. Through that you learn how things should be, you have no other alternative, you're not in the spiritual world – you don't know what, to bestow, means.
Instead, you were given, here, this corporeal world, this world was built in it, in this world, there was built-in this special opportunity, unique opportunity. Like in the laboratory where, here, you can go and check yourself, examine yourself in all the states before you go to act, to the action itself. All the people around you and the work and family, the home, the children, the problems you're given, all of it. It's all there so that if you use it in the right way, you put yourself into a state which is similar to the spiritual state. It helps you build the correct desire for spirituality, with it you then enter into spirituality because we don't know what desire I need to have so as to begin to feel spirituality in that desire. I don't know, it appears to me that it's a very strong desire to receive spirituality and it'll be revealed at long last. I cry, I shout, I have claims to the Creator or requests but it doesn't move Him at all, it doesn't influence Him at all. Nobody will receive spirituality through that. You can cry your entire life, you'll receive nothing because it's not the same vessel, it's not the right vessel. You can constantly not shout, cry for spirituality, but try in this world to be very giving, charitable, helping everyone, love all created beings, whatever you want – that also won't help! You won't advance towards spirituality, even a jot, it has nothing to do with the desire you need to have in spirituality. How many people in the world, he writes there, how many people have burned themselves up, entered such great torments in order to discover the drop of unity one time in their life? What tortures they went through and what did they do, none of it availed them. He said that this is to be, Prideful above all the prideful—that's what they call the Creator and why? Prideful, that means I have a condition and if you don't meet that condition, you don't exist, you're not there, you don't exist. You can be somewhere off to the side, not within my field of vision. My field of vision is very narrow like a beam of light and you can be over there to the side in the shade, I don't see you at all in my line of vision, I don't know what's going on with you there. You go through a thousand incarnations, all sorts of torments and suffering, and you shout to me I don't know what but I don't know, I don't feel it. There needs to be a certain match there through the law of equivalence of form, similarity.
So we were given this world and everything in it exactly so as to create the initial desire for spirituality in it, in this world. You can see many people sitting and studying, they know exactly everything by heart, they're so immersed in the study – they get nothing from it; and others run around and—it needs to be exactly according to what you're given. If you go according to your own reason, your own mind, and not what's being advised that you do, if you act according to your own mind, don't come later with complaints, don't come and complain. What they write to you, it's all written, follow it exactly! No, no, you could say, I can't – fine but then don't come with demands.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:33) What, actually, the group is like a laboratory so I conduct an experiment in the group and then turn to the Creator?
M. Laitman: It's not just that the group is the laboratory, this whole life is like the laboratory. They say it's like a corridor, right? The time of preparation, what is the time of preparation? If you prepare yourself—preparation, yes—if you prepare yourself correctly, you continue on. If not, then whenever you do prepare and they tell you how to make this preparation the quickest; three to five years and so on, they say.
Student: On the most relevant thing, they actually do not say anything about everything connected?
M. Laitman: What do you mean they don't say anything? What they want to say, they say and what they don't say, they want you to discover through your work. What do you mean?
Student: These states, as you describe them, they simply did not go through them. They did not need a group in order to reach spirituality, we need it.
M. Laitman: Don't be so smart as to say that they didn't go through it because they didn't have a group, because they were unique individuals. A person on the higher degree always knows exactly what you need to go through, although he didn't go through it himself. It doesn't matter, you can always say, Rabbi Shimon went through it. He was Rabbi Shimon. Let me be Rabbi Shimon and then I'll also go through the same thing. Correct, that is true, you're right, his soul—he realized himself as he needed to, as he should have and you're different – but don't say that when he became Rabbi Shimon, not while he was still a baby soiling his diapers, right, when he was Rabbi Shimon. Don't say that then he didn't know how you can realize yourself and he didn't know how to write guidance for you. That's not true because the higher degree includes the lesser degrees. He reached the higher degree from the root of his soul but when he's on that higher degree, he already knows everything about what's in the lower degrees, all of them, that's it.
The Rabash also said that they almost didn't have a group, he would say, well, only sometimes, sometimes there was some kind of, there was a possibility to see, to discover that there is a group. There were times like that but these were very bad times: he says he wasn't even told that there's a lesson, they were so jealous. They were great people so they had great jealousy, you understand, not to tell the friend that today there's a lesson? With Baal HaSulam, a lesson, it's not a simple thing – first of all, you had to pay money and a lot of money. He said it was like, it was like your income in a week's or two, a weeks' income for one lesson. Secondly, it was on occasion, right, they wouldn't know when exactly and, suddenly, he says there is a lesson. He says, I came to father. I know that he gets up at 12:00 am, midnight, so I came to him. I come to him because I can't, I don't know, I can't disturb him so I came to him when I had something urgent. I can go, he’s my father, right, I can see him every day, it's not like someone. I opened the door – I thought, my father is sitting and studying by himself; I'll ask him a few things and I'll go, I won't disturb him – and, suddenly, I see everyone seated there studying and I wasn't told about it! So, I sat next to him and I started asking him and the whole lesson I sort of took for myself and nobody asked and nobody, you know, I ruined their whole lesson. He said, he told me about that, he enjoyed it, you understand?
You had such relationships which weren't so positive sometimes. He told me, I asked if there was a group, really and he said not always. There were such times when, yes, it was like that also but still, on the whole, they were special. It was still a time where, you understand, they were all born in the beginning of the twentieth century: David Mintzberg, Maud Bikla, and there were great people there, they were great people, meaning they all entered spirituality. For us, it's a completely different matter, we are the first generation starting with this more popular method which is what it's going to be from now on and we have no alternative. We will discover in a few years' time, in a few years that there is no alternative.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:14) What does it mean in our method we heard that we should work on the quality of the goal and after that on the quantity?
M. Laitman: The quality of the goal, that means that it's not the desire that's important but the quality of the desire is what's important. You know, he gives this as an example, Rabash: a baby standing in the street, shouting, you know, a child of five or six, does anyone pay much attention? I think everyone passed by him – maybe some auntie there comes to him, Why are you crying, poor baby, good boy, and so on. Why do people not relate to him, don't notice him? Are they all heartless, cruel people, it's a little child? But because they know it's for nothing, it's for nothing, in a moment's time, he'll be running around, forgetting about it entirely, as if it never existed, right? So we, who understand that, relate to him in that way. It's not that we don't love children, it's simply that a desire which isn't real, nobody pays attention to it, even in our world, that's it. What we want to say about each other all the time is that, his desire is false, he's just shouting for no reason. What his inner desire is, and what he expresses outwardly — that's false, they're not the same thing. We always blame people of that, look at the politicians, the thieves, the government, doesn't matter who. With our tongues, we only speak of one thing, we will say one thing: that your inner desire and the external desire that you show aren't the same, that's it, that's all, nothing more.
So, to reach the smallest desire, the smallest desire, but directed exactly towards the Creator, as he says on page 64 in The Letters, that, I and Him and the path of the Torah are the same exact thing, as one. That's important, it doesn't matter to me if I'm in the beginning of the path, the end, the middle; I'm already aiming towards the goal. I have a part of the truth, but this part, it might be small, but it's real. And it's not a great big desire which might be false — then it's worse, I'm worse, it's better not to have such a desire. So first of all, a person has to take care of his honesty, the truthfulness of his desire, and then the magnitude of it. And that's why, one who shouts, it's not exactly obvious what he's shouting about, you understand? First, we need to check what he's shouting about, from what point in the heart he's shouting, and then we can discuss it, and we can talk about something. Therefore, the quality of the desire is truthfulness: what exactly it's aimed towards, that's the important part. So what if you have a big cannon, but you're not aiming towards the goal exactly, then what? All these things are not, and this is the problem, that we can't exactly take care of the quality of the desire, because that demands that we be connected to thoughts of bestowal. And so we were given in this world, the group and the society and this whole world, where we exist in some kind of imaginary space, a simulation. And here, we can build some attitude, some regard, from all of our false data . A regard towards spirituality, which is as true and truthful as possible. It's like you're given some toy gun or something, and you shoot these little plastic balls, or I don't know what else. And if you can do that, then you're allowed to handle real weapons.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:01) We, in the group, how can we do it? We take the group as a means, and now we begin to work. And with dissemination too, we want to take dissemination as a means. Not to do dissemination just for the sake of dissemination. We want to use it, but we don't know how to combine our group work with dissemination.
M. Laitman: Alright, these are very specific issues, I don't understand how it relates to what I talked about, but why is it important? What exactly you do in the group, what you engage in? We're talking about quality and how these things should be aimed towards the goal. The goal, meaning equivalence of form with the Creator, and not whether it be dissemination or writing or publishing and so on, how does that matter?
Student: How is it possible in any case to know if you're working on the true work, that it will lead us to that genuine point, what you said now?
M. Laitman: You cannot know, in your current state, where your path leads. You don't know, you don't know, very simply, I'll tell you from my life, what I experienced: I worked in the Air Force with the airplane. You know, when it's on the ground, it doesn't know where north is, south is, it doesn't know where it is. It's a piece of metal and it doesn't know, turn it this way, that way, it doesn't know anything; the same thing with a ship on the sea. So you have the gyro, it's not changing, you need to catch some point, whatever it may be, and you check towards that point always. So then you can say this is north, this is south, it doesn't matter, but it needs to be constant, what does it mean, a constant? That you can always measure that that thing, that point, didn't change too, meaning it's something that's certainly constant. So, you need to set it to something that's certainly constant, and can be a north star. How do I check this? I'm in a state where I'm with my eyes shut on all sides – shut your eyes and on all sides, an abyss, one step you take forward, you fall, and you're standing on a cliff edge somewhere. And there's only this very narrow road, path, in one direction, but you can't see it, you're in complete darkness, total darkness. And you're given some instrument with which you can calculate where that road is. You can't see your own feet, this path you don't see but you look at this device, this instrument and with it you can calculate where the road is, where the path is. How do you calculate? If it's me, and the Creator, and the goal are all together, then I need to combine all these factors together. If I combine them together, then I will see that road, then I will take a step and not fall into the abyss. So, we're told this: you don't know how to do this. You have a group, so you have a guide, and you have the study. Through these things, you keep making that calculation, and you will see that then you will advance correctly and not fall into the abyss, that's it. Meaning, this is the device by which you can tell that you are taking the right, the next step correctly, the correct next step. If you don't make your next step according to this device, you don't even feel that you fell, you don't even know if you fell or not. It's even worse than, you know, in life, that's it. And if you take the right steps, step by step — how many steps, you're not told but in general, these steps are called the time of preparation. Go through that correctly and then you will enter a state called spirituality, that's it.
So, each time you need to examine how to take the next, the right step next, and not make a step or take a step before you do that, before you calculate. Otherwise, it's — that's why it's written, It's preferable to sit and not act. If he sat and did not perform the commandment, he didn't transgress. It's written that, One who didn't transgress, it's as though he observed the commandment, right? So, it's better not to run around and do things in haste, in spirituality, meaning in your decisions. Use various means, run around, yes, but in the actual inner spiritual decision, there you have to calculate in a very exact way.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:01) I'd say it's clear that there are three means: there's the book, there's the Rav, and there's the group. I'd say regarding the book, it's clear to me what I need to do, for example, although I'm not sure. What you said might also be clear, I try. What's not clear, first of all, is regarding the group, where is the group in this picture? How can I check through the group whether I'm taking the next step correctly, that's the first question.
M. Laitman: It's according to the group that it's the easiest to tell if I'm taking the right steps or not.
Student: So how?
M. Laitman: According to what Baal HaSulam and Rabash say, right, about the group. Even if you're not in your desires, in the same state they say you should be. But you already know that you're not there, in that desire, so you know that you're already heading in the right direction. So, the next step you take will be the right step, it doesn't matter what state I'm in, bad or good, it's the direction that matters, you understand? That's the issue of quality, it's the direction that matters, and then a person shouldn't be sorry about, Oh I feel bad, I'm still wicked. No, he just needs to orient himself towards the Creator. You have north, and we're done; if you don't have it, everything else is worthless.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:29) Other than that, what's a spiritual decision? That's a little bit unclear. What's a spiritual decision that we don't need?
M. Laitman: The spiritual decision means that before I'm certain that my desire is the most spiritual in my current state. Meaning truly interpreted correctly in order to bestow towards the Creator, before I know that, I don't act on it. I clarify it, I scrutinize it, and I don't allow myself to – how to say – to lie to myself, saying that I'm doing the right thing. The issue is, a person feels that he lacks confidence in what he's doing, and he knows that all the things he's doing are artificial. And if he knows that, this is a very good indication that he is in truth.
Reader: Share your impressions from the lesson on what we're taking from it to realize and attain.
Song: (01:14:09)