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

Daily Lesson (Morning) October 25, 2024

Part 1: Selected Excerpts from the Sources -The Weekly Portion, Beresheet (Genesis)

Reader: (00:03) Hello, in the first part of our lesson, we're going to learn selected excerpts from the sources, from the weekly portion “Beresheet”. The study materials are in Sviva Tova, the Arvut system, and through them you can send questions to us. Anyone in the study hall who is asking should stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth, and speak loudly and clearly. Selected excerpts from the sources, from the weekly portion Beresheet.

M. Laitman: Yes, we are starting, again, the portion of Beresheet. The goal, the purpose is, of course, to enter Lishma, for Her sake. Let's hope we won't forget about this goal and, gradually, it will seep into our heart and we will feel that we are truly approaching Lishma. That is the greatest goal in entering the internality of the Torah. Let us hope that, in our common effort, we are able to do it. As much as I can feel you and understand you and I know you, we are on the path, we're on the way, and we'll come closer to it, please.

Reader: The Portion, Beresheet, selected excerpts from the sources. The first heading is the work of creation. 

Reading: (02:00) Genesis 1:1-2

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

M. Laitman: Yes, that’s really what’s happening throughout this portion.

Reading: (02:44) RABASH, Article No. 33 (1990), "What Is “The Earth Feared and Was Still,” in the Work?"

“The work of creation” pertains to the beginning of the thought. This means that the beginning of the thought of the work of the creation of the world is as it is written, “The purpose of creation was because of His desire to Do Good To His creations. This is the meaning of ‘the work of creation.’” In other words, this is the purpose of the act, that the created beings will receive delight and pleasure.

However, in order for the pleasure that they receive to be complete, meaning that they will not feel shame upon the reception of the pleasures, there was a correction called Tzimtzum [restriction], where the light does not shine where there is a desire to receive for one’s own sake, meaning that the light of pleasure does not reach there, but rather after the created beings correct themselves so as to have the intention to bestow.

It follows that if there is no intention to bestow, they will have no abundance. Naturally, the whole of the work of creation, meaning the purpose of creation to do good, there will be no one to receive it, and naturally, the whole purpose of the work of creation will be cancelled. We therefore understand that if there is no one with the aim to bestow, this is called “the return of the work of creation to Tohu ve Bohu.”

M. Laitman: That's how Rabash writes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (05:17) We see that the Torah is a method of correction.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: When Baal HaSulam writes, both the Preface and the Study of the Ten Sefirot, it begins with the four phases of direct light, the purpose of creation, the cascading from above downwards. From where does the Torah begin in the correction method?

M. Laitman: From Beresheet, from the beginning.

Student: What is the beginning, it's the beginning of the correction in the world of Atzilut? What is it? Is it man's work from below upward? What is this “Beresheet”, the beginning?

M. Laitman: In the beginning, God created from creation. Inside this plan, this program that takes place in “Beresheet”, in the beginning. You find already the created beings in it and all this act of beginning was what the Creator had in His intention.

Student: How should we relate to it, as the beginning of our correction or is it, like you're told about the world, and you have to understand it as surrounding lights?

M. Laitman: No, no, no, I don't know what is surrounding light or anything. I hear what is written in the portion, in “Parashat Beresheet”, the portion of Beresheet. And I accept it as the beginning of the plan of the Creator, of creation. That's it.

Student: And what should be our relation to it?

M. Laitman: That we wish to receive this plan, accept it and adapt ourselves to it.

Student: To receive it, what do we need to be in relation to it?

M. Laitman: Well, first of all, to receive it – receive this plan – and try for Him to fill us. We have to learn how to receive it, meaning with which intention? What does it mean, not for ourselves, in order to bestow the way, the Creator is, so are we? And, in this way we advance.

Student: In other words, we should aspire for some equivalence with this learning so we have some ear to hear it?

M. Laitman: Yes, we ourselves need to be connected, each one with his intention, needs to be connected to all the friends. And in this way we'll get closer to the portion.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:29) Every Friday, we're now going to learn the portion of the week, selected excerpts from the Torah, and the words of Rabash and Baal HaSulam about it, like today with the portion, Beresheet. I want to ask in general, what is special about the weekly portion? Is it some sort of a weekly light, what is it?

M. Laitman: Yes, the weekly portion is a weekly portion of light and Rabash wanted to divide the Torah into days, weeks, months and offer it to us to use it.

Student: I'm trying to understand, this week we're reading Beresheet, next week Noah, and then other portions. What's special about the text we're reading this week – what is it that it has that other texts don't have?

M. Laitman: Well, it speaks of the creation of the world, Beresheet, in the beginning, it's the creation of the world. And we need to try and receive it, feel it, that the Torah will enter the internality of our hearts and we'll feel how the Creator has prepared everything, created everything, and how should we accept it.

Student: How is the learning of the Torah leading us to entering Lishma, for her sake?

M. Laitman: Yes, that's the goal, the purpose of the Torah and the purpose of the study of the Torah. For us to reach Lishma, meaning in order to bestow through all the created beings, through this nature that we're in, and to the Creator.

Student: What can we draw from this learning now that we're reading these sources?

M. Laitman: From the study, we wish to acquire forces that will open, unlock all of our senses, in which we will feel the act of Genesis and all of creation, openly, in a way that also includes us.

Student: The work of creation is the plan of the entire creation. From our perspective, the perspective of the created being, what does it mean to begin in the beginning?

M. Laitman: That we are starting to get to know all the actions of the Creator, what He did, what He prepared for us, to us. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:45) In the final sentence, Rabash writes that if we don't reach in order to bestow, then it's back to chaos. What does that mean? 

M. Laitman: It means that the purpose, to bring the created beings to, in order to bestow to one another and to the Creator, that is the purpose of the study, the purpose of the Torah. And we need to remember about it, to care about it, to ensure that our study will be in order to reach Lishma.

Student: What does it mean that the work of creation returns to chaos? 

M. Laitman: The return to chaos means without any contact with Lishma.

Student: It's being in the will to receive, that's what it means?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:51) Yesterday, in the preparation, we read the portion and I immediately had a similar question to the friend. Where is it with respect to TES? I immediately looked for the four phases, is the expulsion from the Garden of Eden related to the restriction – the mind started to work. So, we shouldn't think like that, to look for parallels?

M. Laitman: We never studied in this way, with the Rabash. Rather, the Torah is the Torah, that's it. We need to learn it and to accept it the way it enters our hearts.

Student: It's very picturesque. 

M. Laitman: Yes, that's how it's written, yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:54) Today, after the giving of Torah, we now open the Torah. What does it mean to open the Torah? 

M. Laitman: To open the Torah means to discover what it includes and we'll engage in that most of our time. Even as we move to the study of the Ten Sefirot and other sources, there too, it speaks about what's written in the Torah.

Student: It feels very different to open Torah or any other book. What is the difference?

M. Laitman: The uniqueness of the Torah is because it's a source, it's a first book, it's a primary source that tells us about the creation of reality and the existence of reality, the sustaining of reality. And in the study of this, we can approach the internality of the Torah.

Student: And, this is exactly what I want to ask because there are so many stories we heard from Torah. How can we enter the internality of Torah?

M. Laitman: That is the most important topic: How we study the Torah in a way that will open our hearts and enter our hearts and fill our hearts and there we will feel it and reveal it there?

Student: How should we perceive the stories of Torah to be able to open the internality? 

M. Laitman: I think that we will learn about it over time, throughout the year, let's say; and, we'll always try to explain, to understand, to absorb. To discover what each and every portion includes.

Student: For me, it's the first time now that you are teaching this in the morning lesson. Why is it now that we are worthy to open Torah, together?

M. Laitman: We shall do it according to our pace, the way we advance. Let's hope that it will be more or less according to the order of the Portions which our sages planned for when they divided the Torah into portions.

Reading: (18:05) Excerpt Number Three, RABASH, Article No. 33 (1990), "What Is “The Earth Feared and Was Still,” in the Work?"

Why is the work of creation called specifically “earth”? After all, it is written, “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.” The answer is that “earth” is called Malchut, and our sages said, “Why was her name ‘earth’? Because she wanted to do her Maker’s will.”

Generally, we speak of only two discernments: light and Kli. The abundance and all the lights are called “heaven,” and all that receives them is called “earth.”

M. Laitman: That’s in general, heaven and earth. Four?

Reading: (19:06) Excerpt Number Four, RABASH, Article No. 45 (1991), "What Does It Mean that a Judge Must Judge Absolutely Truthfully, in the Work?"

It is known that the work of creation, which is the creation of the world and all that is in it, was with the aim to do good to His creations. In that sense, the world emerged with both the lack and the satisfaction of the lack. This is called “the world of Ein Sof [infinity/no end].” At that time, the upper light filled the whole of reality of creation.

However, in order to prevent the matter of shame, there was a correction called Tzimtzum [restriction], which is a concealment and hiding so the delight and pleasure that the Creator wants to impart upon the creatures will not be apparent in the world before they can aim to bestow contentment upon the Maker.

For this reason, it is upon creation to correct the matter of shame, namely that they must aim in order to bestow.

Reading: (20:34) Excerpt Number Five, RABASH, Article No. 5 (1989), "What Does It Mean that the Creation of the World Was by Largess?"

The first ones explained that the creation of the world was not because of lack, for it cannot be said about the Creator that He is deficient. Rather, the creation of the world was out of largess. That is, as it is said (in Midrash Rabbah, Beresheet), “The Creator said to the angels when He wanted to create Adam HaRishon, and they said, ‘What is man that You should remember him?’”

The Creator replied to them, “What is this like? It is like a king who has a tower filled abundantly but he has no guests.” This is not a lack; it is simply that He wants to give with largess so the created beings will enjoy. A lack is what a person must receive but cannot receive it. This is regarded as a lack. But to bestow is not considered a lack. Therefore, we learn that the creation of the world because of His desire to do good to His creations was out of largess and not out of a lack.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:18) Is the purpose of creation for the created beings to receive the filling or to be able to aim in order to bestow?

M. Laitman: No, receive the fulfillment.

Student: That already happened in phase four, but then there is the restriction. Why?

M. Laitman: That's okay, it's not important, it's still in the upper Keter.

Student: So, what, the purpose of creation is already realized there?

M. Laitman: From the moment it started, the purpose of creation is already realized.

Student: Why is there an additional process afterwards?

M. Laitman: Processes, there are many, in order to bring it into action so the created beings will come and be able to and want to receive what the Creator wants to give them in the way that He wants it to exist, to be.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:36) It's the first time I hear that the Creator created the world. I know He created it for us but out of largesse, what does that mean?

M. Laitman: We’ll learn about it, we will understand it from the actions.

Student: You said before we have to learn to receive from Him everything that He created for us. What does that mean to learn to receive? How do we learn to receive the whole of the thought of creation that He created?

M. Laitman: We will learn how we need to receive. So, the wisdom itself is called the wisdom of reception, Kabbalah. I ask all the smart guys that typically jump – first ask yourselves and then ask, out loud.

Reading: (24:36) Excerpt Number Six, RABASH, Article No. 5 (1990), "What It Means that the Land Did Not Bear Fruit before Man Was Created, in the Work"

Our sages said about the verse, “In the beginning God created,” that it is for Israel, who were called Resheet [beginning], as it is written, “The sanctity of Israel, the Resheet [beginning] of its crop.” This means as it is written, that the purpose of the creation of the world was to do good to His creations. That is, He created in the creatures a desire to receive delight and pleasure, and in this desire, meaning that this desire causes him to yearn to receive the delight and pleasure. By this the delight and pleasure that a person can derive from there is measured.

This is called “the work of the Creator,” meaning that He created a desire to enjoy for the pleasure that He wants to give them. It turns out that nothing is missing in the world; there is abundance that belongs to the will to receive. That is, to the extent that He wanted to give delight and pleasure, to that extent He created a Kli [vessel] for this. This means that the will to receive is not greater than the Creator created it, so he can receive what the Creator wants to give. It follows that the delight and pleasure are present, the Kli to receive is present, so what else is missing?

M. Laitman: Yes, Seven.

Reading: (26:42) Excerpt Number Seven, RABASH, Article No. 33 (1990) "What Is “The Earth Feared and Was Still,” in the Work?"

If Israel receives the Torah, the work of creation will persist, and if they do not, it will be cancelled. According to the above-said, that the Creator wants to give them delight and pleasure, and they also need to correct their will to receive so as to work in order to bestow, what is the connection between the correction to work in order to bestow, that because of this they must receive the Torah?

The answer is as our sages said, “The Creator said, ‘I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice.’ Through the Torah, its light reforms him,” and he will achieve the intention to bestow. It follows that without Torah, there are Tzimtzum and concealment on creation, which is called “existence from absence,” namely the vessels of reception, and the light of the Creator cannot come into the vessels of reception.

It follows that the work of creation, which is the matter of doing good to His creations, is cancelled if there are no Kelim [vessels] that can receive the purpose of creation, which is the delight and pleasure, due to the correction of the Tzimtzum. This correction comes by observing the Torah, and then instead of the Tzimtzum, the abundance appears once more.

M. Laitman: Okay, Excerpt Twelve.

Reading: (29:05) Excerpt Number Twelve Baal HaSulam, "The Meaning of Conception and Birth", Emulating Creation.

When looking at the seal of the work of creation, we find there the words, “Which God has created to do.” This means that the work of the Creator, which is set in the creation before us, is given to us in order to do and to add to it. Otherwise, the words “to do” would have been completely redundant and meaningless, and it would have to say, “For in it He rested from all His work which God has created.” So why were the words “to do” added here? It must be that this verse teaches us that the full extent of the work that the Creator has left in creation is in the exact measure, no more and no less, but the extent that enables us to perform its development and completion by ourselves.

In truth, our entire development in creation is but emulation of it.

M. Laitman: Let's go to 16.

Reading: (31:15) Excerpt Number 16, under the heading: Let There Be Light, from Genesis 1:3-5

And God said, “Let there be light”, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

M. Laitman: Meaning, the division into day and night, evening and morning, so on and so forth, it all belongs to the act of creation. Excerpt 21.

Reading: (32:28) Excerpt Number 21, Baal HaSulam, Ohr HaBahir, Ohr Yashar Ohr Hozer

In His almightiness, He devised a tactic by which a reality of perception of His lights would nonetheless appear to the lower ones. The sages call this tactic “darkness,” as in “and creates darkness,” from the words, “Come and see darkness.” In other words, the denial of the light and our frail perception of it, which we perceive as darkness, are the true reason for the perception of the light. This is the meaning of “As the advantage of the light from within the darkness.” That is, our whole perception in the light is from within the darkness.

M. Laitman: This is the meaning of, as the advantage of the light from within the darkness, that is, our whole perception in the light is from within the darkness, yes. From 35, onward.

Reader: Moving to Excerpt 35, under the heading: In Our Likeness, or In Our Image As Our Likeness. This is from Genesis 1:26. 

Reading: (34:31) Baal HaSulam, Ohr HaBahir, Ohr Yashar Ohr Hozer

In His almightiness, He devised a tactic by which a reality of perception of His lights would nonetheless appear to the lower ones. The sages call this tactic “darkness,” as in “and creates darkness,” from the words, “Come and see darkness.” In other words, the denial of the light and our frail perception of it, which we perceive as darkness, are the true reason for the perception of the light. This is the meaning of “As the advantage of the light from within the darkness.” That is, our whole perception in the light is from within the darkness.

Excerpt Number 36, RABASH, Letter No. 38/1

The verse says, “And God created the man in His own image.” The term creation applies specifically to something new, meaning a reality existence from absence, where the Creator has created something new that did not exist before He has created it. Our sages interpreted that this reality is called “desire to receive pleasure.” This is a lack and emptiness that must now be filled. There was no lack before He has created it, as before this creation there was only wholeness because it cannot be said that the Creator contains a lack. Therefore, this is the only thing that is new, meaning the will to receive.

Excerpt Number 37, RABASH, Article No. 40 (1991), "What Are Truth and Falsehood in the Work?"

We need to understand the interpretation of our sages (Midrash Rabbah, Portion 6), that at the time of the creation of the world, when He said to the angels, “Let us make man in our image,” Hesed [mercy] said, “Let him be created, for he does Hassadim [mercies]; Truth said, “Let him not be created, for he is all lies”; Tzedek [justice] said, “Let him be created, for he does righteousness”; Peace said, “Let him not be created, for he is all strife.” What did the Creator do? He took Truth and cast it to the earth.

We know the words of our sages, “One should always engage in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds], even if Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], since from Lo Lishma he comes to Lishma [for Her sake].” Because of his lowliness, a person cannot engage in His Mitzvot right away in order to bring contentment to his Maker. By nature, he cannot make a move if not for his own sake. Hence, first he must engage in Mitzvot Lo Lishma, meaning out of self-benefit. However, he still draws abundance of Kedusha [holiness] while performing the Mitzvot, and through the abundance that he draws, he will eventually come to engage in Mitzvot Lishma.

Excerpt Number 38, Zohar for All, Pinhas, "Let Us Make Man in Our Image, After Our Own Likeness", No. 500

It was said, “Let us make man in our image after our own likeness,” why does it say afterward, “And God created the man in His own image”? When He asked the angels about the creation of man, some of them said, “Let him be created,” and some of them said, “Let him not be created.” The Creator created him, as it is written, “And God created the man in His own image.”

Thus, He did not place in him one portion from the angels, and he was not made in their form, but in the form of the king, in His image and after His own likeness, only in the image of the likeness of His mold.

Excerpt Number 39, Zohar for All, Yitro [Jethro], "You Will Behold the Secret of the Lines in the Palms,” No. 123

When the Creator created man, He set up all the forms of the high secrets of the upper world—Bina—within him, as well as all the forms of the lower secrets of the bottom world, Malchut. They are all engraved in man, who is in the shade of God, since he is called “a creation of the hand,” a creation of the hand of the Creator.

Excerpt Number 40, Zohar for All, VaEra [And I Appeared], "Four Elements: Fire, Wind, Water, Dust", No. 32

How dense are people for not knowing and not observing why they are in the world. After all, when the Creator created the world, He made man in His image and established him with His corrections, to engage in Torah and to walk in His ways.

Excerpt Number 41, Zohar for All, Beresheet [Genesis], "Let Us Make Man", No. 167

“Let us make man in our image, after our own likeness.” “In our image” means in our light. “After our own likeness” means in our darkness, which is a clothing for the light, to separate it from that darkness that was created on the first day, of which it was said, “And the wicked will be silenced in darkness,” for it is not a clothing for the light but makes the man sin. The darkness of Ima is a clothing for the light, like the body, which is a clothing for the soul.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:28) Friends, we heard from Rav, we are starting again the weekly Portion and the goal is truly to enter Lishma. We hope we don’t forget about this goal and gradually, it will seep into our hearts. And we’ll feel that we are truly approaching Lishma. Let's have a workshop between us before continuing reading:

Workshop Question: (41:41) What's the purpose of our study of the sources? What do we want to get from the study of the Torah? 

Reader: (46:06) We continue, go back to heading: In Our Image, In Our Likeness, After Our Likeness, Excerpt Number 35, from Genesis 1: 26.

Reading: Excerpt 35. Genesis 1:26

Then God said, “Let us make man] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Reading: (46:44) Excerpt 36, RABASH, Letter No. 38/1

The verse says, “And God created the man in His own image.” The term creation applies specifically to something new, meaning a reality existence from absence, where the Creator has created something new that did not exist before He has created it. Our sages interpreted that this reality is called “desire to receive pleasure.” This is a lack and emptiness that must now be filled. There was no lack before He has created it, as before this creation there was only wholeness because it cannot be said that the Creator contains a lack. Therefore, this is the only thing that is new, meaning the will to receive.

Reader: (48:10) We say that this concept of there is no one besides Him, that the Creator that includes everything includes also the will to receive, it activates the will to receive, or it does not activate it.

M. Laitman: This is the innovation, the existence from absence.

Student: What does it mean that it does not include it?

M. Laitman: It doesn't include it because it doesn't need it; and in order to give room, to make room for the created beings, He created the will to receive.

Student: But He fills everything, surrounds everything, moves everything, He is found in everything. The whole story of creation, that will to receive called creation, we learn that we simply don't see that He's inside all of it. So, He does include it or He doesn't?

M. Laitman: Who contains?

Student: The call to bestow, the upper light, the Creator, what we call the will to bestow.

M. Laitman: No, no, because He wanted to create the created beings, He created the will to receive existence from absence, and then He started to work according to that will to receive. At the end of correction, the end of the process?

M. Laitman: At the end of correction the will to receive is ready to receive everything in order to bestow, which doesn't lower it from its degree, and then it receives.

Student: Meaning, at the end of correction, you can say that the Creator does include the will to receive?

M. Laitman: No.

Student: What is Him and His name is One?

M. Laitman: He and His name are One, meaning, He being the Creator's will to create the created being is He, and His name is the desire, itself.

Student: I'm just trying to understand, what exactly does he mean that it does not exist in the reality of the Creator, if There's None Else Besides Him? How can it be that it's relative to the Creator? Of course, relative to the created being there's complete annulment, but how can it be that the Creator, the desire the Creator created, is not included in him? Like a mother gives birth to a child, and he's not?

M. Laitman: Before the Creator decided on creation – or started creation – there was no will to receive in reality. You could say, but perhaps in him, there could be records, or in potential, not in actual fact, in practice. I don't think it's, I don't think it is, that it explains, clearly.

Student: So, because before the process of creation, the will to receive did not exist in reality, we say that he does not include it but after the process of creation?

M. Laitman: After the process of creation, of course, when He decides, He decides within Himself, and then He carries it out.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:58) He writes here that we were created in the image and likeness. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: If the Creator is the will to bestow, it created something new and opposite to Him. Why is it written that we were created in his image and likeness?

M. Laitman: It's an exact replication from the will to bestow in the Creator, the will to receive in the created being was made.

Student: Well, what does it mean, this projection, this copy?

M. Laitman: Right, a copy, copy.

Student: Yes, but it should be something opposite, it's truly opposite. 

M. Laitman: It's opposite from the will to bestow of the Creator, the will to receive in the created being was made.

Student: Why is it written, we should do, in plural?

M. Laitman: Well, that's because several forces participate in this.

Student: Well, it wasn't done by one force of the Creator but several?

M. Laitman: The Creator has a thought and in this thought, from the existence from absence, the will to receive in the created being emerges from it.

Student: We're exactly like the Creator, but opposite in intention? Is that what you can say, that we're truly like him? My desire is exactly like his desire but opposite in intention? 

M. Laitman: Of this, I cannot say.

Student: Because that's what it says, image and likeness. 

M. Laitman: Yes, but it's… Now you're going to start scrutinizing what likeness and image are and you'll find how many, there are many things in it. 

Student: Well, like you said, this is a carbon copy, they have all the qualities in the Creator but I guess it's their opposite. Can we say that or is it incorrect? 

M. Laitman: Yes. Yes, it's possible.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:17) I'm trying to understand what we learned thus far, and I come to the conclusions. First of all, our main problem, mine, is that I don't know how to receive, I don't know how to receive. 

M. Laitman: You don't know how to receive?

Student: I do not know how to receive what the Creator created. Ultimately I'm still on the first side, in chaos. I haven't even completed the first step but together with that, He created us in His image, in His likeness. Meaning we can connect to Him, but I don't know how to connect to Him. And the more I think about my problem, I understand that in the end, it's the ego. Meaning I have to let something go in order to learn how to receive but He created my ego He's reinforced it. I want to do everything with my own might regardless of what He places before me and He places difficult things, not simple things. And I feel that specifically, this beginning when we are learning about the first episode, that's where His secret is found: How do I let go so I would understand how to receive? It sounds very simple but I have to let go. 

M. Laitman: When you finish the work of creation, by then, you will know how to let go. 

Student: G-d willing.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:14) We're starting from Beresheet, from the beginning. Rabash says to us in Excerpt Number Two, the work of creation pertains to the beginning of the thought. What does he tell us? 

M. Laitman: Everything is clarified in the thoughts; and therefore, the work of creation is the beginning of the thought of creation.

Student: Meaning the thought is in the hands of the Creator, He runs me through the thought? He runs my thoughts?

M. Laitman: That's already your addition. 

Student: I'm asking, I'm asking.

M. Laitman: I don't know then, it’s not written this way. 

Student: Everything will be clarified in the thought? 

M. Laitman: From the thought of the Creator? 

Student: From the thought of the Creator, thank you. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:28) We say that our goal is to reveal the Creator. In me, it's sometimes interpreted egotistically, and sometimes in the form of in order to bestow. When I hear about revealing the Creator, I need to add because this is His will, and we want to do His will. 

M. Laitman: Well, yes, yes. 

Student: But I don't always manage to execute the right interpretation. 

M. Laitman: Okay? 

Student: So, how to keep the right interpretation and arrange the goal? 

M. Laitman: You're asking correctly, we will learn this over many, many lessons. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:27) It is said He is truth, and His Torah is truth; and we heard that He threw the truth to the earth. Is the darkness arranged for the reason of the advantage of light from darkness? And what was said that we have no deeds in us but there is truth and the truth is the light and is the root of evil? 

M. Laitman: We will learn, and we will provide answers and interpretations to all of this.

Question (Asia): (59:08) Is it a new thing that we're not aware of the fact that we're the will to receive? 

M. Laitman: When, when were we not aware? 

Student: Because the beginning of creation versus now, where we ask why and how. 

M. Laitman: Are you talking about the beginning of the creation of the created beings? 

Student: They did not exist yet. How is it that the Creator is the absolute wholeness but He has a deficiency, even if it is a deficiency to bestow? 

M. Laitman: He wanted for the deficiency to be clarified to Him, and that He would be able to pass this deficiency to the created beings.

Question (Women PT 6): (59:59) Without the creation of man, the Creator cannot express His desire to do good?

M. Laitman: No. 

Question (Women Hebrew 1): (01:00:09) Is the infinite deficiency to bestow contentment to the Creator, does that include the infinite filling?

M. Laitman: You could say so, yes, you could say that it is. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:41) They describe here the process of creation. Is creation when the Creator pushed away the will to receive from Him?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: He created a barrier. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: This feeling doesn't let go, but should each one of us go through the process of creation on his own flesh?

M. Laitman: No.

Student: I have to distance the will to receive, get through this creation by myself? 

M. Laitman: We will learn it. Yes, where are we? 

Reader: 37. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Reading: (01:01:22) Excerpt Number 37

RABASH, Article No. 40 (1991), "What Are Truth and Falsehood in the Work?"

We need to understand the interpretation of our sages (Midrash Rabbah, Portion 6), that at the time of the creation of the world, when He said to the angels, “Let us make man in our image,” Hesed [mercy] said, “Let him be created, for he does Hassadim [mercies]; Truth said, “Let him not be created, for he is all lies”; Tzedek [justice] said, “Let him be created, for he does righteousness”; Peace said, “Let him not be created, for he is all strife.” What did the Creator do? He took Truth and cast it to the earth.

We know the words of our sages, “One should always engage in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds], even if Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], since from Lo Lishma he comes to Lishma [for Her sake].” Because of his lowliness, a person cannot engage in His Mitzvot right away in order to bring contentment to his Maker. By nature, he cannot make a move if not for his own sake. Hence, first he must engage in Mitzvot Lo Lishma, meaning out of self-benefit. However, he still draws abundance of Kedusha [holiness] while performing the Mitzvot, and through the abundance that he draws, he will eventually come to engage in Mitzvot Lishma.

M. Laitman: Questions?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:19) A person is all lies. What does it mean? 

M. Laitman: What is it, anything that awakens in him, awakens because of the will to receive, which is falsehood and oppositeness from the Creator.

Student: The will to receive is lie, falsehood.

M. Laitman: Yes, because it doesn't exist in the Creator and this is what dominates, what governs a person.

Student: Meaning that we are in something, that's what it appears to us, that ultimately does not exist in the Creator.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And in reality, this is the true reality?

M. Laitman: In the actual reality, it also doesn't exist. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:34) Why did he cast the truth? 

M. Laitman: There are many interpretations to it. That, in order for truth to grow out of the earth afterwards. For the created beings to cause by themselves, cause truth to grow out of the earth and that it would be in the process of creation. 

Student: Meaning the truth as a result of our own doing?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:32) What we just read, he keeps repeating, the fact that he created man in His image and likeness, that's on the one hand. The other hand He says to you, like a father to his son, you should be ashamed, I gave you everything and you're doing nothing. And that was never clear to me. He gave to me. 

M. Laitman: What? 

Student: He gave me, seemingly revived me, created the will to receive, everything around us. On the other hand, He says, look, I gave it to you. But you have to justify the fact that you exist in this world. That's the concept of removing the bread of shame, that you should be ashamed that I gave it to you. So, what is this concept that I created you, but you should be ashamed that I gave it to you? 

M. Laitman: We haven't come to it.

Student: He writes about the shame, here, why do I need to be ashamed if you created me in this way? He created me. Why do I need to feel ashamed and remove it? 

M. Laitman: That's a children's question – why I need to be ashamed of what the Creator created in me? 

Student: Yes, it makes me feel that I'm in the wrong, I'm not right. He gave me something but he said do something for it.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: From Lo Lishma come to Lishma.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How do we do it? What does it mean that I have to extract the shame from the process? Why do I have to reach shame? 

M. Laitman: Are you done?

Student: Yes. Are there answers?

M. Laitman: Let me answer.

Student: Please?

M. Laitman: The Creator created in you the will to receive, so that through working with it, by working with the will to receive, you will feel how dishonest it is, how unpleasant, how stinking it is. And then you will want to get rid of it and to get rid of it, you have to engage in what is called Torah because the light in it reforms you. And instead of the will to receive, the will to bestow will be revealed in you. That's it.

Student: I mean, in my daily work now, as I come to study here, this whole process is to get rid of the shame from me, in order to be like Him. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: That's all our work.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: I understand, thank you.

M. Laitman: And?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:38) The will to receive pleasure was created in the beginning, which is completely opposite to the pleasure the Creator wants to give.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: What's the difference between these two pleasures, two types of pleasure? What can we say now about the pleasure that the created being wants at the beginning of His path compared to the pleasure the Creator wants to give the created being? 

M. Laitman: The Creator wants the created being to develop with its own forces of the Creator. And come to a state where it is similar to the Creator one hundred percent, all of it. The created being exists in order for all the operations of the Creator to experience them from the will to receive, in order to receive, in order to bestow, the will to bestow, etc. That's the way by which the created being must develop. 

Student: When can you identify, what can the created being identify the pleasure that is approaching what the Creator wants me to want versus what I think is pleasure?

M. Laitman: For this, the created being must be comprised of many discernments. He needs to collect them, learn to work with them, and then to identify in them which is closer and which is farther from the Creator.

Student: What is correct for the created being to desire? What would be the right thing to say to the created being, want this, you will derive pleasure from this?

M. Laitman: From bestowal, it's similar to the Creator.

Student: And if the created being still does not have that perception?

M. Laitman: No, he doesn't have it. 

Student: So, what is bestowal for him on this level? 

M. Laitman: There isn't, it doesn't exist; initially, the created being cannot even understand what bestowal is. 

Student: Thank you.

M. Laitman: Alright. Okay, what else do we have? 

Reader: Besides this document, we have the Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, continuing from item 91.

M. Laitman: Yes, let’s move to Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot. 

Reader: We'll sing a song and go to the next part of the lesson.

Song: (01:11:52)