The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) October 4, 2024.
Part 1: 1. Baal HaSulam. Shamati 13. A Pomegranate. 2. Baal HaSulam. Shamati 14. What Is the Exaltedness of the Creator?
Reader: Hello, we are studying the writings of Baal HaSulam, the article of Shamati, number 13, “A Pomegranate”. You can find the materials on our sites and also send questions to Sviva Tova and the Arvut System. Whoever is here and wants to ask a question, raise your hand, stand up, hold the microphone and speak loud and clear into the microphone. So, we are in the writings of Baal HaSulam, the articles of Shamati, article number 13, “A Pomegranate”.
Reading: (00:43) I heard during a meal on the 2nd day of Rosh Hashanah, October 5, 1948
A pomegranate, he said, implies to what our sages said, “Even the vain ones among you are filled with Mitzvot like a pomegranate” (Iruvin 19). He said, Rimon [pomegranate] comes from the word Romemut [exaltedness/sublimity], which is above reason. And the meaning will be that the “The vain among you are filled with Mitzvot.” The measure of the filling is the extent to which one can go above reason, and this is called Romemut, exaltedness.
There is emptiness only in a place where there is no existence, as in “The earth hangs on nothing.” You find that what is the measure of the filling of the empty place? The answer is the extent to which one raises oneself above reason.
This means that the emptiness should be filled with exaltedness, meaning with above reason, and to ask of the Creator to give him that strength. This will mean that all the emptiness was created, meaning it comes to a person to feel this way—that he is empty—only in order to fill it with the Romemut of the Creator. In other words, one is to take everything above reason.
This is the meaning of the verse, “God has made it that He will be feared.” This means that these thoughts of emptiness come to a person in order for one to have a need to take upon himself faith above reason. And for this we need the help of the Creator. It follows that at that time, one must ask the Creator to give him the power to believe above reason.
It turns out that it is precisely then that one needs the Creator to help him, since the exterior mind lets him understand the opposite. Hence, at that time, one has no other choice but to ask the Creator to help him.
It is said about this, “One’s desire overcomes him every day; and were it not for the Creator, he would not overcome it.” It follows that only then is the state when one understands that no one will help him but the Creator. And this is “God has made it that He will be feared.” The matter of fear is discerned as faith, and only then is one in need of the salvation of the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (04:41) Good morning, Shana Tova to all the participants, especially around the world. It says here that the thoughts of emptiness are so that a person will have a need to take upon himself faith above reason. We know that the mind is kind of all the time thinking about thoughts. What are empty thoughts? And how can you even come to, when you're in thoughts all the time to come to such an emptiness where seemingly you're not thinking of anything? What does that mean?
M. Laitman: It depends on where your thoughts are aimed.
Student: That's the problem, is that there's constant thoughts all the time. What will be? What's tomorrow? What's the next day? What’s with the kids? What’s with the wife? But how do you come to a state where you're touching on, and what's the thing of emptiness? Why is it so important that the thoughts will be a kind of emptiness where there's room for the light to enter like he says here?
M. Laitman: One needs to hold on to his thoughts, and to understand in what direction those thoughts pull him, and then to the extent that he understands that, he can add an intention above them regarding what he wants there to happen.
Student: And then he says, this is because the external mind makes him think the opposite. Like I'm saying, the disturbances are terrible, because you're constantly in concern, always concerned. And how do I bring myself to a state where I won't think such a kind of thoughts that are even scary, I would say? How can you do that? How can you reach a state, like he's claiming here, and then there's room for the light to enter?
M. Laitman: That also depends on an illumination from above. The Creator makes it so the person feels the presence of the Creator. There's no chance of advancing correctly with the thoughts that flow through the person. And the person has to guard himself.
Student: What is the role of the Ten here if I wanted to be assisted by it to clean my thoughts? Is there such an option?
M. Laitman: Then the person sees that without support from his small society, he can't even for one moment have the right thoughts. And the entire Ten, if they support each other, and all of us together are aiming towards a connection with the Creator, restricting themselves to one desire, one intention, then they begin to understand the opportunity they have. And then they begin to see that the entire process they're going through has been pre-prepared by the upper force. And then they begin to bless Him. And then they start directing themselves towards Him. And only that appears to them as a goal.
Student: In summation, I want to ask you, is there an option where the thoughts can change my reality?
M. Laitman: Of course.
Student: Really?
M. Laitman: Yes. A thought, especially one that is compatible with the thought of creation, which comes to connect people with the Creator, the thought can do everything. Everything is clarified through thought. And it's only thought brings them, the people who activate their connection, to the proper, desirable state.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (10:35) What is an empty place, thoughts of emptiness?
M. Laitman: An empty place. Place is the will. And if the wills are not oriented towards the revelation of the Creator, being like the Creator, then they're called empty. Because due to the lack of equivalence of form, there's no upper force in them. And then, through scrutiny, each and every person should be yearning to discover the Creator, and for the Creator to govern him, to rule him.
Student: The moment a person identifies that the upper light is awakening these thoughts of emptiness in him, is that the beginning of filling already?
M. Laitman: Yes. The person begins to discover that before he woke up, awakened towards the Creator, the Creator awakened towards the person, pulled him, warmed him up, directed him to come closer to the Creator.
Student: Before a person awakened, the Creator awakened him? So, what's the part of the person? To wait for the Creator to awaken him?
M. Laitman: To identify, to want it, to participate in it.
Student: And what does it depend upon that the Creator will awaken in me this moment or the next? Is it dependent on me in some way?
M. Laitman: It depends on me and on the environment.
Student: What depends on me to be more sensitive to how the Creator awakens in me?
M. Laitman: I need to know that everything depends on the proper sifting of thoughts and desires that flow through me and that I have to organize them such that they bring me to a state where I'm standing in front of the Creator.
Student: From a state of thoughts of emptiness, what is it to bring oneself to a state of faith above reason?
M. Laitman: In each and every state, a person has to maintain himself to be together with his friends on the path and try to connect them all together towards one goal that they all share, which is the revelation of the Creator to the created being. We have nothing more than that. I need to understand that this is also the purpose of all of this. Our study of our existence to reveal the Creator as the Good who does Good to everyone and that everyone needs to be as one unit.
Student: Last question. What is it to be yearning that for the Creator to control me?
M. Laitman: To yearn For the Creator to perform actions upon us such that we change in the direction of equivalence of form with Him. And then it follows that the form of our correction, of our connection rather, matches exactly the way the Creator relates to us.
Student: So, the correct form is that He controls and we're controlled?
M. Laitman: We are controlled, of course. We ask for it to be controlled because then we come closer to a state where one receives one.
Student: Our partnership with the upper one isn't being controlled by Him?
M. Laitman: Yes. We want him to be the controller, the ruler, for him to be the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:09) In continuation to what you said to the friend, I need to know that everything depends on the desire and the thoughts that go through me, and I have to arrange them such that I'm being brought to stand before the Creator. What is to stand before the Creator?
M. Laitman: This is difficult to describe using words, but ultimately I need to gather all thoughts, actions, plans such that through a connection with the group, the Ten, I come to stand before the Creator.
Student: Do I need to come to a decision every single day that the desires of the friends are more important than my personal desires? And the Creator is checking to see me every day whether I want to be for the friends or still in my desire to receive for myself?
M. Laitman: Yes. We also see that in the Siddur, the written prayers, how the great Kabbalists who prepared the Siddur for us, they wanted to help us through our prayers reach a state where we face the Creator.
Student: How in the work in the Ten do we sharpen the connection between us, the desires of each other? How do we reveal towards one another the deficiencies of one another?
M. Laitman: If we pray in a Minyan, a group of Ten, meaning that everyone's connected together and everyone is aiming for the revelation of His Kingship in this world, then we reach it.
Student: If we perform a common prayer every day, are we raising our deficiency this way? Connecting to some common deficiency: let's aim towards the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Thank you.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:58) Can we come to an empty place before we work on the right line?
M. Laitman: Everything is possible.
Student: Thank you
M. Laitman: You already asked.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:37) Where should a person start when the whole path is kind of burnt, all the desires, all this greatness, everything disappears, everything is erased? It doesn't just disappear, but I lost it, that's it, it doesn't exist anymore. And a very thin string remains. How is it correct to start something completely new?
M. Laitman: We begin from this world to the extent that we're together, studying together, gathering all of our intentions into one intention, all the different images we can imagine. We also gather all those into one image and ultimately come to be as one man in one heart. That's it.
Student: When there's nothing, what do we start? The prayer that was, all the prayers that were. It's kind of like I lost them already, and I know that it's not that already, that yearning that the Creator had, that relation, that attitude that the Creator had, the relation towards the friends, everything became zero. Like there's this new expectation, but how do we do it? How do we not err and go correctly? How do we catch, grip onto, how to be born anew? I think that's the question.
M. Laitman: In such a case, the person has to understand that the Creator is giving him a chance to be renewed, and that his work in this is to be completely annulled before the environment. In that way, he elevates himself so as to be in front of the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:22) Sometimes in such states, it seems like the new work is kind of more internal, and in externality, it's not what I was accustomed to do. It's like there's this, it's like one is kind of condemning the Creator for not being what I was, but it feels like there's some kind of new step towards this work.
M. Laitman: So, what's the question?
Student: Is that a good state to be in, that we should try to be like once, or I don't know how to call it, where should we advance towards? That's the question.
M. Laitman: He writes that in the article, the title of the article, “The Matter of the Pomegranate.” We begin with exalting the Creator, praising Him above all the thoughts, and suspicions, doubts, whatever we have. And as we sort, we sort all those cases with respect to the Creator, then we reach the exaltedness of the Creator.
Student: Is the matter of Romemut exaltedness only in above reason?
M. Laitman: It also exists within reason to the extent that the person understands it and is capable of imagining it. But in essence, it is above reason.
Student: The thing is that within reason, there's no exaltedness, actually. There's kind of room to condemn. But above reason, there's this opportunity to kind of through the Ten, through the work with the friends to be in justifying the Creator and being how He truly helps.
M. Laitman: Yes, now we have another article. What is the exaltedness of the Creator? Let's read it.
Reader: So, we are going to move to the next article in the writings of Baal HaSulam, the Shamati articles, Article Number 14. What is the Exaltedness of the Creator?
Reading: (25:24) I heard in 1948
The Romemut [exaltedness/sublimity] of the Creator means that one should ask the Creator for the strength to go above reason. This means that there are two interpretations to the Romemut of the Creator:
To not be filled with knowledge, which is intellect with which one can answer one’s questions. Rather, he wants the Creator to answer his questions. It is called Romemut because all the wisdom comes from above and not from man, meaning that man can answer his own questions.
Anything that one can answer is regarded as answering everything with the external mind. This means that the will to receive understands that it is worthwhile to observe Torah and Mitzvot [commandments]. However, if the above reason compels one to work, it is called “against the opinion of the will to receive.”
The greatness of the Creator means that one becomes needy of the Creator to grant his wishes. Therefore:
One should go above reason. Then one sees that he is empty and becomes needy of the Creator.
Only the Creator can give him the strength to be able to go above reason. In other words, what the Creator gives is called “The Romemut of the Creator.”
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:43) It's a question about both articles, actually. The question is, where is the deciding point? You can see that there's a certain deciding point here, this exaltedness. Is it in the preparation for the state, or in the state itself?
M. Laitman: What do I need to decide?
Student: To go above reason the moment there's that emptiness, and not with all that is known, and we're acquainted with, and certain with.
M. Laitman: Yes. So, when a person subjugates himself before the Creator and asks Him to go above reason, as above reason, he can be adhered to the Creator above any conditions. Yes?
Student: The question is whether we do all the preparation, with the group, the lessons, and everything, then such a state comes? Is the preparation what already made it so that there will be a correct decision, or does a person choose in that point something, does he have some kind of choice of himself there?
M. Laitman: So, he writes this to us here, at the end of this little article, the exaltedness of the Creator. The greatness of the Creator means that one becomes needful of the Creator to grant his wishes, therefore one should go above reason, then one sees that he is empty and becomes needful of the Creator. That's what we taste already, that state. Two, what is the greatness of the Creator? That only the Creator can give him the strength, the strength to be able to go above reason. So, we do feel ourselves to be empty, lacking, until the Creator gives us the ability to rise above reason. And what the Creator gives is called the Romemut, exaltedness of the Creator.
Student: Where is the person part of this decision here? If He does everything, that's okay, but if a person himself needs to decide at some point and say, I want the exaltedness of the Creator.
M. Laitman: And what of it, if a person says that?
Student: That's a question. If he did already a preparation before, and he's with the Ten and everything, that's one thing. If he didn't do, that's another thing. If there are many possibilities here inside this situation, I'm asking where is this decisive point, where is the tipping point where that's it from here on, it's the exaltedness of the Creator and not something else.
M. Laitman: A person lacks nothing except for the greatness of the Creator in his estimation, in his feelings. And all the obstacles, the hurdles, those all fall. That's it. So, all in all, our work is rather simple. With the society, and also especially given that we come from the shattering, we can discover how much we need the Creator's help. That's it. That's what we need. Nothing else besides only to need the Creator's help.
Student: But that too already comes from the Creator where a person is needy of the greatness of the Creator. It's clear that it comes from the Creator. That neediness is not from him, it's from the Creator.
M. Laitman: That doesn't matter at all, completely meaningless. Of course, I am the created being, and I was created by Him, and I just want to reach the point of decision, to decide what I must do. That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:47) I feel as though there is a lack, a very powerful lack to ask that all the friends will receive an awakening from the Creator. And now I feel that power to turn to the Creator, because the friends are thinking about me having the ability to ask for them. So, when the Creator gives this awakening, does He give it through the friends, or should I ask directly?
M. Laitman: However, He wants. However, He wants. We can receive awakening in all kinds of manners, reasons, and states.
Student: How can we maintain this prayer to always be in that collective lack?
M. Laitman: By you having a group, that you feel yourself being in the building, and you can turn to the Creator and ask.
M. Laitman: Okay?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:14) Faith above reason. Faith is above reason. But ultimately, when I discover it, I discover it with reason. Right? I jump into the water, like Nachshon, but ultimately, if I don't know it, I haven't discovered it. I have to discover it with my reason. Those are the vessels I have. I lift my hands without reason I search, but ultimately I find. Right?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And you reach a state, maybe, where you feel.
M. Laitman: Correct.
Student: So, reason made it certain.
M. Laitman: Right.
Student: And now what?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes. That's it. Reason is supportive. And then, by it, I advance.
M. Laitman: Yes. Well, there are some questions from the women.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:40) Hello, Rav, everyone. We want to be above reason and calculations. The Creator probably gave this character to many people, this kind of character where I pay attention to every little desire, every little movement by each friend, and that makes me calculate a lot. And also, I want to think about the benefit of all the friends, at the organization, and the people on duty, and I want to think of all the things Rav said, and many calculations. So, the question is when to let go? Sometimes all the desires conflict, and it's uncertain what now would be for the benefit of the friends, for the benefit of the Creator. If I now feel something, when do I say that this is for the benefit of the friends and I go with it, and when should I let go and say this is for the benefit of the Creator and not to mess with my reason?
M. Laitman: That's in accordance with your feeling.
Student: But sometimes it's very confusing to know when to let go and not deal with it. Many times, there are desires that conflict the benefit of different friends, or the benefit of the society, and what Rav said to do, and all of this is according to reason. So, if I know that, okay, this would benefit the friends, should I go for it because it would benefit the friends even though it's according to my calculations, my own reason?
M. Laitman: You will always have those calculations, yes?
Student: And if things conflict, for example, if I think that I'm thinking about the benefit of the friends, but the friends' desires are in conflict, so how do I know which one is for the sake of the Creator? Do I need God's help here?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, when I'm not sure, and when I don't know if it's for the benefit of the friends, there I stop calculating and turn to the Creator?
M. Laitman: Specifically, because you don't know. What, in other cases you don't need to turn to?
Student: If now, if according to my reason, one thing seems to me to be benefiting the friends why do I need to turn to the Creator? I know that I now need to act a certain way for the friends, for the sake of the friends. Do I need the Creator's help here? I'm serving Him here right now, it seems to me.
M. Laitman: If you scrutinize your state you see in the end of the day that without the help of the Creator you can't do any action.
Student: Even if the action seems clear to me?
M. Laitman: Yes, to determine any state.
Student: To always work with Him whether it seems clear or unclear.
M. Laitman: Yes. the lady over there.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:54) If you could please explain the point regarding what the friend asked previously about how he reaches the exaltedness of the Creator above reason and then he finds that it is within reason. Maybe Rav can explain that point, which is above that exaltedness, which is even greater exaltedness, above reason.
M. Laitman: It's when I want to exalt the Creator and not to exalt the means which I use, the group, the Ten, etc., but rather only to exalt the Creator.
Student: What action is required of us at that point?
M. Laitman: To exalt ourselves, to raise ourselves above the state that comes to us from above, from the Creator.
Student: What can help us rise more, to make sure that everyone feels that?
M. Laitman: I didn't understand the question. We need to exalt ourselves, yes, by the fact that only the Creator can give us what we need. That's what he writes. That the exaltedness of the Creator is considered that one becomes needy for the Creator to fill his requests, his questions. Therefore, one: one needs to go above reason, then he sees that he's empty and becomes needy of the Creator. And two, that only the Creator can give him that strength to be able to go above reason. In other words, what the Creator gives is called the Romemut, the exaltedness of the Creator.
Student: Yes, but at the point where he already gave this exaltedness, the person prayed and received this exaltedness, greatness from the Creator. How can the person add this above reason component to truly exalt the Creator and not this, the given state? What does the person add?
M. Laitman: What does he add? He adds his attitude towards the Creator, that the Creator is the central force of creation and not a person.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:21) In the end of the first item there, he gives an example where the will to receive understands that it's worthwhile to observe the twine commandments.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And the person needs to go above reason, and he understands that he needs to go against the will to receive.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So here, there seems to be a contradiction, but supposedly he has to understand that he has to go against his will, because he needs to do this for the sake of the upper force and not for his own sake. That's the contradiction?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Thank you.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:12) Over these days, Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, should we have some kind of different request, different way of thinking, a different demand of the Creator to put to the Creator? Do we need to be in a different state of exaltedness?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Where do we need to be in that place then?
M. Laitman: We need to be in a desire of defining our entire direction or trend that it will draw towards it all the states, all the actions of ours, such that all together we discover the exaltedness of the Creator.
Student: I don't know, there's a feeling that Rosh Hashanah is a point of renewal. A place where I can be in a new place, new feelings, and also to renew the request in some form. But I don't know how to make it new, how to bring this new, refreshing feeling into words or the perception of the Creator. I feel it in the air on the one hand, but at the same time it seems, I don't know, in our work how to, it's something that receives a different kind of greatness, different kind of exaltedness, maybe I should just request, ask for it?
M. Laitman: So why not? It is clear that eventually, you will have to ask, and if you don't have a feeling of innovation or novelty, then ask to feel what's new in creation, okay?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:54) Rav, is an act of bestowal, must an act of bestowal be against the will to receive?
M. Laitman: Usually, yes.
Student: Usually, are there acts of bestowal which go along with the will to receive?
M. Laitman: There are.
Student: Right. Now, the emptiness, does it come before the exaltedness above reason?
M. Laitman: Emptiness comes it's revealed before everything.
Student: Before everything.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And it's an act done by the Creator after which a person has to act himself, or is it an action the created being has to take, reaching that emptiness?
M. Laitman: A person needs to reach his own emptiness.
Student: How?
M. Laitman: How to get to this?
Student: Yes.
M. Laitman: First of all, through his work in the Ten and prayer. What else does he have to do besides scrutinizing the true state he has in him, that he's in it. And in order to stabilize, establish himself correctly, he needs prayer.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:59) Do you want to continue to the next part of the lesson?
M. Laitman: Yes, maybe.
Student: Next part of the lesson. So, you have excerpts from the sources on the Sabbath of Rosh Hashanah, but before that, a song.
Song: (49:13)