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

Daily Lesson (Morning), September 14, 2024.

Part 1: Lesson on the topic of "Continuing the Convention With an Ascent."

Reader: Hello everyone. We are in a lesson on the topic of “Continuing the Convention with an Ascent.” We will read selected excerpts from the sources, you can find the material tab in the Arvut system, you can also send questions. You can ask a question, here, there are microphones across the hall. So, notice we don't have ushers but notice that you pass the microphone. And if you're sitting next to a microphone, be alert for that. Of course, once you've received the microphone, stand up, and ask loud and clearly into it. Our topic today is, “Continuing the Convention with an Ascent.”

M. Laitman: (01:13) We have received very impressive results from the congress, even though we cannot yet discover the spiritual degree that we are in. Because for that we still need to attain a shield in order to receive this degree towards bestowal so that we can bestow, but it will happen soon. And what we now need to do is only to check, to connect ourselves even more and try to be incorporated with each other. And in this way, all of us together. The most important is the connection. So, please. 

Reading Excerpt 1: (02:38) Baal HaSulam. Shamati 26. “One’s Future Depends and Is Tied to Gratitude for the Past”

There are many people in the world who were not given the strength to do the holy work even in the simplest way, even without the intention and in Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], even in Lo Lishma of Lo Lishma, and even in preparation for the preparation of the clothing of Kedusha [holiness], while he was imparted the desire and thought to at least occasionally do holy work, even in the simplest possible way, if one can appreciate the importance of this, according to the importance one attributes to the holy work, to that extent he should give praise and thanks for it.

This is so because it is true that we cannot appreciate the importance of being able to sometimes observe the Mitzvot [commandments] of the Creator, even without any intention. In that state, one comes to feel elation and joy in the heart.

The praise and the gratitude one gives for it expand the feelings, and one is elated by every single point in the holy work, he knows Whose servant he is, and thus soars ever higher. This is the meaning of what is written, “I thank You for the grace that You have made with me,” meaning for the past, and by this one can confidently say, and he does say, “and that You are destined to do with me.”

M. Laitman: (05:26) This means that, as we have already gone through a few stages in our spiritual development, even though we don't feel it. Like, let's say, a little child or a baby who is already under corporeal development. We can see it according to his body or according to his responses, we can see that he's advancing somehow in his development. But he himself is not aware of it, this is how it is with us in spirituality.

We connected, we performed a few actions and these actions are registered in our spiritual file. But we do not yet attain where we are, just like a little child who doesn't attain how old he is. Or is he more from the moment that he was born, or let's say a few months later, but he doesn't know, he can't count and appreciate these few months in which he's already developing. It is the same with us, we need to relate to ourselves, to each and every one of us that these are our friends on the path. And specifically through connection with them, we will discover eventually where we are.

So, let's try to develop within us this sense of recognizing the friend, recognizing the society. And in such a way, we will advance towards recognizing our spiritual place, where we are. And how can we use all of our forces, which already exist within us. However, we cannot yet correctly detect these forces, and use them correctly – as we see with babies or small infants. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:53) The congress went through, the way I feel it, like some lighter wave. We didn't really labor into deep scrutinies in the lesson but the pressure from above was felt from the first minute. And yesterday, after the congress, like a thick cloud of joy descended on us, so it's not clear, did we somehow get privileged or this is a loan we'll have to pay? 

M. Laitman: You won't have to give back anything, you earned it, you made a great effort to come here. We know that even coming here, physically, wasn't simple, and therefore, everything we received, we earned it. I'm certain that we will begin to experience greater understanding in the mutual connection between us. And we will start to rise, higher and higher, on the ladder of degrees that leads upwards.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (10:57) There’s a desire to express deep gratitude for the congress. And a question a friend wanted to ask yesterday, can we increase this phenomenon if it comes? Either we live in what was in the past or what comes naturally from emotions?

M. Laitman: I think that for the past, for the present, as well as for the future, as we read exactly now. When he says, “I'm grateful to you for the grace that You have made with me,” meaning for the past, and by this one can confidently say, and he does say, “and that You are destined to do with me.” Meaning, I'm grateful to You for everything You've done with me in the past, and for everything else that You will do from this moment onwards in the same manner. That is, we will feel a good relation, a good attitude from the Creator towards us, towards all of us, without a doubt. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:47) From your answer I didn't understand: If it's something that comes from above or that we have to acquire some skill that despite everything, we're in love and faith?

M. Laitman: The main problem in our world is the egoism that divides us, separates us, distances between us. In a congress, we become incorporated in something that is mutual, common. And we make all kinds of movements, even artificial ones, towards each other. Clearly, none of us really has love towards others, we were created just like all other created beings. Therefore, what we did together, the efforts to gather, we by that, awaken the great abundance of good from above, from the Creator. And now, we need to receive this abundance within us, to digest it, and to continue onwards. 

Student: I want to be precise: If we study this excerpt, and Kabbalists write to us like this, it means that it's very important to be thankful for the past, present, and future. What is the benefit if, say, today in the meal, or even just a second, if we are thankful for past, present, and future. What is so important to Kabbalists about that being in prayer? 

M. Laitman: The Creator feels our response towards His actions, and if we respond correctly for Him gathering us, bringing us closer, making out of us one common desire. Then through us giving gratitude for it, for the way He relates to us, we uplift His importance, His role, His value in our eyes. And by this, we are rewarded with an even better attitude towards us.

Student: The gratitude is, actually, a practical device to increase the greatness of the Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes, of course. 

Student: So, you say there's only two states: You either ask or you give thanks. Now, I wanted to ask a long time ago, is the power of that equal to prayer as an influence from above downwards? 

M. Laitman: Yes, we need to remember really well, and write it down, because we will forget about it all the time. That, specifically gratitude, gratitude to the Creator for creating us, for developing us and for placing us between people who are like us, so that we will be able to develop in such an environment and attain Him. If we don't forget about that, by this, we will acquire a very serious device for our ascent, all the way to the Creator's degree.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:44) What is this shield that we have to attain?

M. Laitman: The shield is what we can hide with, away from our egoism. And when we acquire this shield against our ego, it is considered that we are rising above ourselves. And to the same extent, we can be close to the Creator.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:03) My question is: I'm not in spirituality, yet, since I'm new to this feeling. But the Creator has chosen me and ignited my heart, dot, and sent it to you. This is a tremendous feeling, I'm grateful to the Supreme Creator, Rav. How will I keep this heart dot alive, and how will I not forget? my heart dot, when my ego increases? Because the only power that keeps me here is my heart dot.    

M. Laitman: Without a doubt, no feeling of ours can remain, forever but rather, there are ups and downs, changes in our feelings, this is why we have to try to manage them, manage these feelings. To understand them, to feel them, to see them from the outside. And in such a way, we will begin to manage them, to direct them, and by that, it's not that I am under the influence of these feelings that go over me and they change. But rather I operate on them and I change them, and I live in them according to how I determine.

Without us reaching such an ability with respect to our emotions, we will be like babies, like little children –  that one time he cries, another time he laughs, one time he's happy, another time he's sad. And he doesn't even know where it comes from but rather he's constantly undergoing such changes. And we can see how these changes, also, go through us. And so, the first step that I now need to make is to see myself, outside this wind. Wind, meaning it comes and changes from one direction to another direction, from a great force to a small force, or the other way around. But rather I'm going through these, and I'm going through these changes within me.

And we need, through our connection, through our influence, everyone on everyone, we need to reach a state where I determine my spirit. And it's not that the spirit determines what I will be, what I will feel, what I will keep. Therefore, let us, first of all, make exercises such that we will feel the power within each and every one. So that with this power, I can hold myself in my hands, and I, myself, can determine how I feel in the next moment.

And besides that, this is how I want to determine it, for my whole life. That, what I will feel and the way that I will evaluate every moment. And how I will discover the upper force, how He influences me. It will depend only on how I relate to Him, and therefore, from this moment onward, I have to be aware that I am receiving influences from the Creator. And these influences depend on how I relate to them.

This means that from here onward, I have the ability to hold myself in my own hands, in my own hands. And it's not that I'm like some piece of wood that is in a stormy sea, so that the waves throw it in all directions, okay? Holding myself with respect to the group, that I have to be connected really well together with them, and influence them by my stability, in spite of all the changes in states. This is the beginning of the correct state.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:41) Is it the same thing to hold myself opposite the feeling and also the work with the friends? 

M. Laitman: Yes, with respect to the work with the friends, it's even more so. Because I have to relate to them, all the time in a good way in helping and supporting. And it doesn't matter in what way or at what height I relate to them.

Student: Is there some difference between holding myself against the feeling of whatever comes and with respect to how I work? 

M. Laitman: This is man's work – that each one of us, if he needs to be independent, if he needs to feel that he is in the spiritual world – we need to learn, to understand, how do we respond to the Creator, to whatever He awakens in us. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:25) How can I determine my next feeling? How can I manage the next state? 

M. Laitman: I can manage the next state, only by rising above how I feel, so it doesn't matter to me how I feel. But rather what is important for me is how I relate to the environment and to the Creator. And I am concerned about supporting them, and to continue this way, non-stop. 

Student: What is this Kli that enables me to be independent, that gives the ripeness? 

M. Laitman: It's the power that I acquire because the Creator takes me through different impressions, influences, and I, in spite of that, I hold myself as much as I understand, correctly, towards the direction of my development. 

Student: He puts me into different states? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And I just have to relate to Him, relate to Him all the time, yes? 

M. Laitman: I'm not just a response. I'm responding in order to keep my direction of development on a straight line.

Student: Right, how do I maintain my progress on a straight line and not constantly moving between left and right? 

M. Laitman: This is through connection with the environment,we have no other possibility. When I am connected with the environment, and I put together my forces and I bestow on them, influence them constantly. 

Student: Should I flow with what the Creator puts me through? Or try to go above that, against that? 

M. Laitman: Maintain a straight line. 

Student: And how do I determine this next state of the spirits? 

M. Laitman: By this, you want that the Creator’s relation to you will remain constant, permanent. 

Student: What about the work, here, in the Ten? What is the work with the friends that helps me direct to a single, straight line? 

M. Laitman: That you work with the friends in a constant bestowal towards them. 

Student: And then what, when I work towards them? 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: How does it direct me? 

M. Laitman: First of all, you operate towards them and through them towards the Creator. 

Student: So, to understand, He turns to me and awakens me in different states? 

M. Laitman: Also through the friends, through the environment.

Student: And my response needs to be? 

M. Laitman: Through the environment towards Him. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:00) About the shield, can you say that it's ZA? 

M. Laitman: We will learn that. That, actually, is correct. 

Student: To connect the Keter with the Malchut, and part in this world, part in the upper world, yes? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And the matter of gratitude: So, what happens to a person in life, the actions of the Creator, in a Ten, in a group, in the family, at work, it's all surrounding light, yes? 

M. Laitman: Well? 

Student: And if I could say thank you to the Creator, if I could reveal His light, that would be inner light, yes? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And what we call that the Kli is – first of all, I know where I am and where I need to rise – the difference between them is the Kli, yes? 

M. Laitman: Let's say so, let's say so but this also requires corrections and changes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:37) We heard that we need to learn how to respond correctly to the Creator.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: On the other hand, we heard we have to be thankful for the past, present, and future. So, how do you settle the two? 

M. Laitman: Actually, each time we need to have such relations that we are thankful to the Creator for awakening us and establishing us in a certain form towards the environment, that's on the one hand. And on the other hand, we want to advance to the next state, closer to Him, closer to the friends.

And we need to realize that only in the connection with the friends, with the Ten, only inside the Ten. If I connect with them as much as possible, I can be calm, that I exist in spirituality. And I'm growing from one stage to the next, from one moment to the next.

Student: Yesterday, we heard that you never set goals but rather always let the Creator, tries to nullify more for the Creator and allow the Creator to guide him to wherever needed. And here it's the matter of response and then there's also the matter of gratitude.

How do we make this whole because seemingly the person has to nullify before the Creator at all times and accept that the Creator pushes him in the right direction, to the right state? Because we're like a baby that doesn't know how it grows up. On the other hand, we heard that a person needs to respond correctly to the Creator. So, how does he know what is the next step or what's the next stage to go through? How to look for a response? 

M. Laitman: He only wants one thing, to equalize himself with the environment so that he is like a piece of wood that is in the water. And then to the extent that the water goes up, or down, or waves pass through, he's there, has no opportunity to change his state. And it's the same with us, we can only be connected to our environment.

Student: What exactly is the work of this tree, when the waters are sweeping it away? What's the right response of the tree? 

M. Laitman: To be as little independent as possible but rather to feel the environment, and be absorbed in it. Be assimilated in it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:43) I wanted to continue, when you opened the lesson, you said we got impressive results in the congress but it's a degree we still can't see. 

M. Laitman: We are as if entering Ibur, conception, or impregnation. We're now beginning our correct spiritual development, I'm talking about those people who want to develop in the direction of the goal. 

Student: So first, when you define impressive results, what are these results to you, what are you looking at? 

M. Laitman: That we are like a drop of semen that was received inside the womb, this is a great thing. We know how, if we do not succeed with the natural force to enter pregnancy, then it presents a great problem. And who knows if we will succeed?

Student: So, when you say we still cannot see the upper degree because we still don't have a shield. What is that shield that enables you to see the higher degree that you have to enter? 

M. Laitman: The shield is the force that we need to develop, more and more, all the time in each and every degree, in order to be independent of the results of the degree itself. Meaning that I will have a screen, a Masach, and through this screen I come out of the fact that I'm in the degree, I want to strengthen it. I want to strengthen the environment. 

Student: The absorption in the upper degree, what does it manifest in because you said a person needs to be as little independent as possible, and rely on the environment. How does this happen, this absorption, on a higher level? 

M. Laitman: The absorption happens through the combination of my forces and the forces of the degree, the degree is actually the Creator. When I hold myself so as to be matching and annulled with respect to the external forces which come from the Creator. And to be together with this degree, congruent and agreeing with all the changes that come towards me, which is already considered above reason. 

Student: It sounds like you need to become impregnated in the Creator, if He's the upper degree?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: This impregnation happens to every individual, everyone? Or to the extent that the Ten connects? 

M. Laitman: Yes and no. 

Student: What's yes and no? 

M. Laitman: Both this and that, we will actually feel it. 

Student: Okay, if you can give us some action that will cause this impregnation? 

M. Laitman: It's only absorption or integration in the Ten, you have no better way to measure it.

Student: What does it mean that I've been absorbed in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: That I'm constantly feeling the general state, which is one state for everyone. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:35) Sometimes it's a feeling that the Creator enjoys not just the gratitude from us, but the truthfulness, the sincerity of our gratitude, that it comes from the heart. How can we reach the strongest gratitude, is it the resolution of internal contradictions and giving thanks for it?

M. Laitman: I'm afraid to answer you, yes or no. What do you understand under this concept of internal contradictions? With respect to whom, with respect to the group, the country, within yourself?

Student: The question here is about seeing wholeness inside of me or outside.

M. Laitman: You can't do that, yet, it's still far away from us. 

Student: So, can we see it as an indication of our progress? 

M. Laitman: No indication, it will be above you. The advancement has to be with faith above reason against our desires, and thoughts, and insights. We receive everything that comes to us as a gift from the Creator, and that's it. 

Student: How to reach true gratitude? 

M. Laitman: Not through your head.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:34) One of the goals of the congress was to grow stronger in the Ten, that was the topic of the congress, also. Now, according to how I spoke with the friends, and it was a very strong feeling, that indeed we had, we made preparations to grow stronger in the Ten. But when we came here, a force, a very strong force started forming here. It was like a hurricane that started to draw you into it and it swallows you.

And the feeling of focusing on the Ten gradually disappeared, and one force was created, here, many friends felt that. The question is: How do you see it, in terms of the goal that we had, that we decided to grow stronger in the Ten? Is this the peak of it? Will we see this, did we achieve the purpose, will we see it later? 

M. Laitman: Well, you need to continue. 

Student: Now, the feeling that was created of this one, many times we learn that we receive something in potential and later we have to actually receive it. So, this feeling is something that we need to see how to later reach it through our own forces? Because I feel that we received a gift, like a taste of something. A taste of what it means to exist in one force, which is our reality. There was a feeling that there is no other reality, this is the reality, and we feel it all the time when we are here. So my question is: The Creator gave us some taste, and He told us, now you have to achieve this taste by your own forces?

M. Laitman: Yes, this is good. Try. 

Student: In what sense is it good?

M. Laitman: This is an example of what you have to reach.

Student: So, we have to reach it in the work of the Ten? 

M. Laitman: Where else? 

Student: Because here, there was an example of many friends who came from different places.

M. Laitman: It's the same Ten, what does it matter.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:09) How can I hold myself by my own hands? How can I hold myself with my own hands? 

M. Laitman: What does it mean, my hand, on my own? That I will direct my own qualities? I'm not sure what you're talking about.

Student: Earlier you said that a person has to relate to the states that come to him and hold himself by his own hands. So, how can he do it? 

M. Laitman: That's actually through the environment, that I connect with the Ten and along with them I want to do all kinds of actions. And after that, I feel that these actions, I feel what they've done in me, and that's how I advance. I don't have any other possibility to do any kind of changes except influencing the Ten and the Ten shapes me. Then, I shape the Ten and the Ten shapes me, again and again, step after step. 

Student: We are a virtual group and we study, virtually. Now we will go home, what is your suggestion, what can we do when we go home? 

M. Laitman: I recommend at home to, again stay connected to some Ten that feels itself as something closed and connected to the Creator, that's it, and there inside that Ten, try to do all of your spiritual activity.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:03) This congress, something like extended our feeling to the friends, it's regarding to their spiritual fulfillment. So, does it mean that I place the Masach above myself, and then I enter into the friend? 

M. Laitman: Yes, the screen is above me. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:02) I want to continue the friend from before about the great force that we received in the congress. How do we take all the friends who were here, the Ten, and each one received the force from the entire society. How do we continue to strengthen this force in the Ten? Starting tomorrow, starting today, how do we continue to strengthen this force? You said in the congress, also, that every day we have to reset ourselves. This resetting that we're talking about, it means to take this force and see how do we continue onwards?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: How do we do it, practically, in every morning lesson? 

M. Laitman: That you strengthen the connection between you each and every moment. And if you miss the moment, then that's it, you've missed it. It's not going to be, the next moment is not going to be the moment that it should have been. 

Student: So, that's it, how do we not miss out, like you're saying, what should we do so we won't miss it? 

M. Laitman: Always be in concern for the increasing connection between you.

Student: How important is it that we will come every day? I feel that the Ten is like a compass for us. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And we have to, like you said before, that we won't be going in all sides. How important is it that the prayer, that we bring a common prayer every day in the Ten? To what extent does it really direct us from our common work, every day? To come with a common prayer and pass it onto the Creator and continue with this force? 

M. Laitman: Like you said, that's what should be. 

Student: So, not to give up on this, every day to have a common prayer? 

M. Laitman: Every moment.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:27) On the way to the truth are there moments where we shouldn't search for the truth in order to maintain a certain process of development? When we search for the truth, are there moments in this process where, actually, we should not look for the truth in order to keep a certain process of development? 

M. Laitman: No, always maintain the right direction. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:25) Can we appreciate the labor of the friend as an indication of her gratitude towards the Creator? Can we say that our appreciation of the exertion, the efforts of my friend, is an indication of our gratitude towards the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:00) Through the convention I felt, we felt a great strength from the women to support us. How do we default, use that strength when we are going to our own Tens? 

M. Laitman: We keep going, we continue, that's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:52) You said that gratitude helps us uplift the importance of the Creator in our eyes. Gratitude is not always given in equal measures within the Ten. Some friends will remember, some won't, some it seems never think about it. Let's say, I can't remember but my friend does, does it raise the importance for all of us inside the Ten? In other words, can we compensate for each other?

M. Laitman: Yes, we can. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:55) You said that when a person is negligent on the path, the next moment is not the way it should be. I'm asking because sometimes it seems that there is more negligence, or failures, than success. Is there a way, nevertheless, to make up for these moments when we fail? 

M. Laitman: There will be a way to redeem and correct it.

Student: Another question about holding on, maintaining the straight line. You said that when there are various influences on a person, he should try to maintain a straight line. Sometimes these influences create such a state where it's not even clear what does it mean to go straight. So, besides the word connection because the word connection also sometimes loses its internality when we work. So, what can I hold on to for certain so that this straight won't become too blurred? 

M. Laitman: Inside the Ten, only strengthen your connection with the Ten, and awaken them to that connection as well; there's no other means. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:49) How can I know precisely what is the connection between us? What exactly is the connection between us, how can I know that? 

M. Laitman: You will know that later because that connection will become revealed. 

Reader: She's asking also if there's a way to know that I'm on the straight path, on the correct path?

M. Laitman: In the meantime, yes, you don't feel it, but I'm telling you, yes. Soon you will begin to identify that connection on your own.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:01) How to become incorporated in a common desire in the best possible way? And to transform the results of the congress to gratitude towards the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Think about it frequently, and then the decision will come.

Reading Excerpt 2: (01:00:39) Rabash. Article 6 (1991) “What Is, “The Herdsmen of Abram’s Cattle and the Herdsmen of Lot’s Cattle,” in the Work?

In every beginning a person must start over the acceptance of the kingdom of heaven, it is not enough that yesterday he had faith in the Creator. For this reason, every acceptance of the kingdom of heaven is considered a new discernment. That is, now he receives a part of the vacant space that was devoid of the kingdom of heaven, and admits that empty place and fills it with the kingdom of heaven. It follows that now he sorted out a new thing, which did not exist before he took that empty place and filled it with the kingdom of heaven. This is regarded as elevating a new spark into the Kedusha. Finally, from all the ascents, he always raises sparks.

M. Laitman: (01:02:16) This is, basically, this is why we need to appreciate the descents because it's like we dig. And then we bring up what we've got from the descent.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:41) Yes, we talked before about the communication of the person with the Creator. About gratitude, he also links it immediately with the Ten, so it doesn't remain just in him. And together with the Ten, again, the Creator, again, this kind of communication all the time. Here, he says, that specifically in the state of descent one takes the sparks. How not to lose this communication specifically in the time of descent? 

M. Laitman: He wants to remain in the same direction that he determined before. And that is what now shapes him and stabilizes him. And so, also, during the descent, he tries not to fall from the control of the Creator over him, and that's what's holding him. So, even though I am now in the worst possible state, I am thankful to the Creator for still not completely losing my head, my knowledge, my feeling. That this reality, that I'm in spirituality, even though it is this reality drags me in all directions; I hold this as my degree. 

Student: Here exactly comes the question because we started this whole lesson with the shield. What is this shield that keeps a person from losing his connection with the Creator, specifically in the time when it's most necessary, during a descent? 

M. Laitman: I want to be connected to the Creator at the time of the descent, just as in the time of ascent. And to me, individually, it doesn't matter, what matters is just to be connected to the Creator.

Student: How do we reach such a state? 

M. Laitman: This is called Ibur, conception. In that degree where a person was. 

Student: So now, as a result of the congress, there is the preparation, the maturity to enter this state that you are talking about? 

M. Laitman: Yes, please, go ahead. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:10) Our connection happens in the screen? 

M. Laitman: Let's say so. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:43) Three years ago, I reached, I came to Kabbalah. And back then, I already started thinking that in the corporeal world, the woman is very much in control, in our world. You said before that the gratitude should come from the mind also, and I'm full of gratitude after seeing everything that the men were doing. The music and everything and I can't hold the gratitude within me.

I think that the women will support the gratitude and the men are like the highest, the greatest, the finest. Thank you very much, you did such work, please keep adding. We are ready to do everything to add oil to your wheels and push you, and really, to follow you. Because the men, we really want to follow you. Thank you very much, dear men. I couldn't hold myself back. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:43) Before, on other congresses, we used to say that descent is ascent from the left. Is it still valuable, this description of the descent, ascent from the left? 

M. Laitman: Well, let's say so, such a sentence could be used. 

Student: Can we say that it can be balanced, somehow, by still keeping the ascent from the right?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How? 

M. Laitman: You connect more. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:07) The work in gratitude and appreciating the descent, can we somehow help a friend to do this work? Not to do it in his stead but to help him do this work. 

M. Laitman: Well, yes, try it.

Student: I think about myself, what is that? Is that a prayer, or to send him thoughts? Or what else can it be? 

M. Laitman: You could get physically closer and help him. 

Student: Physically, how to get closer? And if I can't physically get closer? 

M. Laitman: Then in other ways. 

Reading Excerpt 3: (01:11:13) Rabash. Article 22 (1985) “The Whole of the Torah Is One Holy Name.”

Any overcoming in the work is called “walking in the work of the Creator,” since each penny joins into a great amount.” That is, all the times we overcome accumulate to a certain measure required to become a Kli for the reception of the abundance.

Overcoming means taking a part of a vessel of reception and adding it to the vessels of bestowal. It is like the Masach [screen], which we must place on the Aviut [coarseness]. It follows that if one has no will to receive, one has nothing on which to place a Masach. For this reason, when the evil inclination brings us foreign thoughts, this is the time to take these thoughts and raise them above reason.

This is something one can do with everything one’s soul desires. He should not say that now he has received rejection from the work. Rather, he should say that he was given thoughts and desires from above so as to have room to admit them into Kedusha [holiness].

M. Laitman: Questions? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:14) What is this joy of pleasure? Can we somehow imagine it, depict it? Or maybe abundance, sorry, what is the abundance? 

M. Laitman: That is how it's felt in a person, that’s how it’s felt in the person. 

Student: What does the person feel? 

M. Laitman: A person feels that he has acquired something. 

Student: This is what we felt in the congress, we felt that we achieved something, attained something. Is this a part of this abundance? 

M. Laitman: It's a part of this abundance, correct.

Student: According to what I heard from you, this is now beginning? 

M. Laitman: I didn't understand. 

Student: This is just a small part, meaning now we're just beginning to receive this abundance? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:40) About the strange thoughts we have, the alien thoughts. Even if we're not always aware of them, we're not always able to control them. And sometimes those thoughts just flip us around. Many times it brings a sense of struggle and confusion. What can we do in order to include those thoughts in that vacant space? And that we won't be afraid of those thoughts. 

M. Laitman: All the thoughts come from the same place. And therefore, we shouldn't throw away some of them and some of them accept. We need to unite them all together, and from all of them together receive one impression. We build our relation to this one impression.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:47) I want to thank everything I got first of all from you, and also from the whole Kli. To such an extent that I have a desire to just stay here, close to you, and to study here in Israel. And obviously, if I stay here, we're influencing one another more, and it's easier to hold on to the state of the convention. And when I go back to Italy, it will be very hard to sustain what we attained in the congress.

But if I understood this article correctly, there's like a vessel or a way that I can always remain on the straight line. Whatever motivates me, I'm always going straight. Also, in my meetings and the interactions with people that aren't specifically on the path, that also brings me into states that can also bring me down. Is that right? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Reading Excerpt 4: (01:20:21) Zohar for All. Introduction of The Book of Zohar, “On the Night of the Bride”, 138

“It is a law that the creature cannot receive disclosed evil from Him, for it is a flaw in His glory for the creature to perceive Him as an evildoer, as it is unbecoming of the complete Operator. Hence, when one feels bad, denial of the Creator’s guidance lies upon him to that same extent, and the superior Operator is concealed from him.”

From this we see the necessity of the correction of bestowal: Not only is it impossible to receive the delight and pleasure that has been prepared for us, but there is something here that removes us from faith in Him, and this is the worst!

Thus, the sensation of good and evil in relation to His guidance brings with it the sensation of reward and punishment, for one who exerts to not part from faith in the Creator is rewarded even when he tastes a bad taste in Providence. And if he does not exert, he will have a punishment because he is separated from faith in the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:22:11) After the congress, when we acquired this feeling of gratitude in our common vessel, this shield of bestowal. How can all Tens and Bnei Baruch together, how can we build the prayer of the many together so the Creator will hear us? What do you recommend? 

M. Laitman: All in all, I wish you to feel love, which is present even in the connection between us, and especially toward us from the Creator. That's the main thing. And through the feeling of love, you will come to a soft relation toward each other. And then, in this heart-to-heart connection, you will discover everything that exists in creation, the very best things. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:24:22) So, the question is, Baal HaSulam taught us about giving gratitude to the Creator for the past, the present, and the future. But he wrote about the past and the future. He didn't write about the present. Why? 

M. Laitman: Because we're in it. So, if I feel that the Creator is hugging me from both sides, from the past and from the future, then of course I feel everything. I feel all of it in the present.

Student: Could you say that to give gratitude to the Creator for the past is the light of Hassidim and giving gratitude for the future is the light of Hochma? No? 

M. Laitman: No. You like to organize everything. 

Student: Yes, I like it.

M. Laitman: You like to do this, but it's not always correct. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:49) You mentioned heart-to-heart connection. And sometimes, for example, I'm with my Ten virtually, all the congress, and there is a feeling like we are connected. Not only through the system but internally. But how to define it? How to work with it? I can feel connection with other friends, not only with my friends from the Ten. How they make exertion toward me internally. I also make exertion, and I feel, I see the friends that they feel it. How to work with this? How to define? How to connect more in this way? Is it beneficial? 

M. Laitman: Of course, it helps if you relate to everyone well. But through your Ten, you have to. And within your Ten, you have to close up with them spiritual relationships, and relate to all your friends in the Ten as to the Creator. That's it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:27:34) What's this component in the prayer? When we say the word Creator is great, the merciful, the mercy, what does that mean? 

M. Laitman: What's the meaning of these words? 

Student: We know that prayer prepares gratitude and a request. But this doesn't sound like a gratitude or a request, but like praise.

M. Laitman: Whatever's in your heart. 

Student: How to use it? 

M. Laitman: You feel it, and you express it, because it's in you. 

Student: This praise, can it aid when a person is in a descent and can't do anything that can help? 

M. Laitman: No.

Student: When he can't ask, can't give gratitude, nothing. Can the praise help? 

M. Laitman: No, because it's a lie. 

Student: We have a lot of lies.

M. Laitman: It's a lie, and it's impossible to lie to the Creator. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:29:12) One of the lessons in the preparation for the convention, you mentioned that the friends hold me and determine my future. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student:  How can I live with that determination? That, because in the convention I really felt it. For the first time, after many congresses, all my spirituality depends on my friends. All my future like you said how to live with this determination. 

M. Laitman: When you are in a tight connection with the friends, and that connection has no chance of disappearing, and you can in your present opportunity bring to it the correction and the feeling. That's it. 

Reading Excerpt 5: (01:30:44) Rabash. Article 29 (1986) “Lishma and Lo Lishma”

The descent he has received is for his own good, meaning that he is receiving special treatment, that he was lowered from his state where he thought that he had some wholeness. This is apparent in his agreeing to remain in the current state his whole life.

But now that he sees that he is far from spirituality, he begins to think, “What is really required of me? What should I do? What is the purpose I should achieve?” He sees that he has no power to work, and finds himself in a state of “between heaven and earth.” Then, man’s only strengthening is that only the Creator can help, but by himself, he is doomed.

It was said about this (Isaiah, 4:31): “Yet those who hope for the Lord will gain new strength,” meaning those people who hope for the Creator. This means that they who see that there is no one else in the world who can help them regain strength each time. It follows that this descent is actually an ascent, meaning that this descent that they feel allows them to rise in degree, since “there is no light without a Kli.” 

M. Laitman: Clear? What is clear and what is not clear? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:33:16) In the congress we all felt an ascent. We felt we have this vessel where we can receive the upper abundance. That all of this happens through a common prayer, a common hug, the preparation, the meals, the music. But now the lesson is about overcoming. That for now the ego refuses to go ahead because he supposedly invested and said, way to go, you already put your efforts in there. How to take the forces, to hit them in the teeth, and tell them that this is the best time for connection with the friends, for a greater effort to overcome this state.

M. Laitman: Yes, so? 

Student: We just read. Well, we thought we had a vessel in the convention, but now we have this ability to create this vessel, to overcome the ego even more. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, where to take those forces from? We were in the convention. We invested a lot there. Now we are out of forces. So, how to keep going ahead? 

M. Laitman: How to go forward? You have friends. You need to ask them. 

Student: The feeling is that the vessel was shattered in front of our eyes again. So, somehow we need to separate. There is a Ten, but the same efforts we invested in the congress, the feeling is that this endless work to invest more and more. I don't know where to take those forces? What motivates us to go ahead? 

M. Laitman: It's a problem. We need to scrutinize it. From where do such thoughts appear in you? Such desires, intentions? 

Student: The congress is like a holiday. Not only of bestowal, the ego also helps us remain in the congress. We want to find the sweetness in the work. And now we are supposedly just naked, standing alone. We have a Ten. We have the lessons. Nothing disappeared. But we know that nothing disappears in spirituality. But from the state, we have to calculate and go ahead.

M. Laitman: So?

Student: So, how to do it? 

M. Laitman: In short, you are lost on the way, on the road like a little child, standing and feeling all alone, and crying. Crying. What would you advise him? 

Student: Hold onto the friends, a Ten, the lessons. 

M. Laitman: You don't have them. 

Student: Hold on to the Creator.

M. Laitman: He, too, is not there. He is totally alone. So, what does he do? 

Student: Ask if the Creator will appear to do it with our efforts. To overcome in bestowal. 

M. Laitman: It's a problem. And what if he simply goes back to the Ten? Because that's the closest thing. You can ask. Cry out. Cry in front of them. They'll somehow react. 

Student: So, we'll cry together in the Ten. 

M. Laitman: Anything but alone.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:38:52) During a descent, why does a person always ask the same questions? What do you want from me? What do I need to do? What's my purpose? It's felt like we always go back to the beginning. So, what to do? 

M. Laitman: What to do? Don't go back. A person truly feels constantly that he's been thrown out, thrown out, thrown away, and disconnected from the spiritual path. True. What to do? Only to unite among us and ask. Did you already do this? 

Student: We are asking, but it feels like we constantly have to renew the request. 

M. Laitman: And are you renewing it? Does it work out for you? 

Student: Yes, we are asking and it renews itself, but we always feel that we have to do another thing and another thing towards it, to add something, to do something. As if the answer a person gets also keeps renewing itself, and it's not something constant. 

M. Laitman: Yes, and still we need to ask. The most important is to ask.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:41:25) When you say that we gained something in the congress, what exactly do you mean? Today feels like day three of the congress for me, and I've been in a congress for a long time. Sometimes even the Shabbat afternoon lessons are so powerful, they feel like congresses for me. And we see the quality of the questions, the diversity, the different people asking, our friends, you see all the great Kabbalists asking questions. And you can feel that the desires are coming from a very deep place.

So I really don't see the difference between most of the lessons and a real congress. And I think that even after today, tomorrow I'll still be in a congress. So when you say we gained something from the congress, are you talking about some timeline, or are you talking about all the accumulations from the past? Because I'm still in the congress, it hasn't ended for me. So, what does it mean that we gained something from the congress? 

M. Laitman: That you feel around you that you have more friends, supporters, than before, and you can rely on them. 

Student: So, is it correct to divide the timeline into feelings, or what? What's the criteria for dividing the timelines? So that you can know what is the past? Because sometimes it feels like it's one timeline. 

M. Laitman: It is one timeline, but it's divided into past, present, and future. 

Student: So what's the correct way to divide the timelines? 

M. Laitman: What we are feeling in the past, in the present, and in the future, we feel it in the present, now. And therefore, it's not like it's past, and it's not coming back. I can work with these things now as well in the present, and this is how I continue. That’s it. 

Student: What legitimate request can we have in such a timeline? I mean, I mean, gratitude is obvious, you're happy that you're in this, but besides gratitude, what exactly can we ask the Creator for? Because it looks like we have everything already. 

M. Laitman: It's true that He gave, but we did not receive. It is still not absorbed in us, stabilized in us, established in us. That's the problem. We can say that the Creator already activated on us all of His powers, all His powers. We are in a world where, besides what we feel, there are many other degrees and worlds.

But why don't we feel it? Why don't we attain it? We have no sensation of it. That's the problem. By overcoming on our part, by connecting between us, we can begin to feel the reality that is above time, past, present, future, above good and bad. But rather, the whole world is the absolute good. This is what we need.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:47:29) That's why yesterday, right after congress, you aimed to another congress because you felt that now it's opened a new place for a new congress? 

M. Laitman: That's not what I meant. No. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:48:13) We now built a Kli between us, and it really feels like we received some measure of light. Now we're searching for how to do this for the sake of the Creator so He doesn't disappear. So what is our action now to give it to Him? 

M. Laitman: This is why we have to feel the Creator, to connect to Him, and in the connection with Him, to pass onto Him what's in us, in our desires, in our hearts. And then everything will work. Everything will succeed. We can divide this action into a few parts. First of all, we need to connect all our hearts together, to connect our heart with the Creator. And to pass from heart to heart, from our heart to the Creator's heart.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:50:18) We ask and really wanted to get an answer. Sometimes we get an answer quickly, and sometimes it takes a very long time. It's unclear. How does the Creator determine? On what does it depend, my receiving of an answer? 

M. Laitman: We don't know that; it's all above time. It could be today, it could be a year from now, in all kinds of states.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:51:20) When we perceive coarseness, it seems like something personal. Is there a coarseness of the Ten? 

M. Laitman: We still can't tell the difference, but obviously there is some form of coarseness of the Ten.

Student: When we get the coarseness, it feels like burdening, like heaviness. What is this in this package of coarseness? 

M. Laitman: Other desires. 

Student: Other in what sense? 

M. Laitman: Other meaning coarseness that doesn't come from the root of man but from other people.

Student: What is recommended to do when you get the burdening or when you get the coarseness? 

M. Laitman: We try to connect between us, and to feel the common point of connection, and from it to see the new reality that comes to us. 

Student: You just talked about feelings. Initially, you said that a person has to kind of be stabilized, or established, and rise above his feelings, and continue the work. On the other hand, there is the matter that we have to be in a heart-to-heart connection in the Ten. So that means we first have to emerge from kind of foreign feelings and then establish new feelings. Is that the process? Because it's not clear when it is the right feeling, and when it's not. 

M. Laitman: We need to try and rise above the feeling itself, and in this way to determine what my relation, my right contact will be with the Creator's relation.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:55:19) Before the greatness of the Creator, and according to all the feelings we go through in the heart, I'm afraid of attaining the Creator. Will that fear subside over time? 

M. Laitman: Of course it will go down. No doubt. There's people that start with a great fear towards the upper force, towards the Creator. And some have no fear at all because they don't know anything, like children. And some grow, and then sometimes a feeling of fear awakens towards the Creator, yes. But truly you have no one with a greater heart, a better relation to each and everyone and all together except for the Creator. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:57:33) My question is: We awaken, the Creator gives us certain conditions. On the one hand, the Creator gives us all kinds of states, and we have to make efforts. But it seems like I don't have that strength. So how to work with it? 

M. Laitman: Ask the Creator for forces. This is what He wants of you. He brings you to a state that you feel that you have no force, and without that force you can't attain anything. That's why, try not to waste time but to ask of Him, as quick as you can, to get forces from Him. Then everything will work.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:59:42) Which is the correct vessel to focus on: The one with my women’s Ten, or the one with my family, my husband and his vessels? 

M. Laitman: Who's asking? It's like a question from a woman. 

Student: Yes, she's asking, should she focus in the spiritual work on the vessel I create with my women’s Ten or in the vessel of the family and my husband, because my husband is studying too. So through the husband's vessel? 

M. Laitman: No, through yours, the women, the women’s Ten that you're in. 

Student: I have a follow-up question with that. The role and importance of the spiritual vessels in life and how they relate to each other in terms of personal growth, and in spiritual growth practice.

M. Laitman: Can you repeat the question, please? 

Student: And what's the role and importance of the different spiritual vessels in life, and how, and how they relate to each other in terms of personal growth and in spiritual practice?

M. Laitman: We still don't know that. We don't see all those vessels. But afterwards, we will be able to connect them all together, and from all these vessels, through them to work. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:02:41) We get an answer from the Creator. It may be events or thoughts around us. How to feel the Creator's answer and not be confused? 

M. Laitman: Can I get the translation? 

Student: She's asking, how is the Creator's answer expressed? Is it thoughts, feelings that come? How to feel the Creator's answer without being confused? 

M. Laitman: The Creator's answer comes in all kinds of channels to a person, to his mind, to his feeling, in all kinds of different ways. That's what I can say. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:04:01) I have to listen. I've been sitting and crying. I feel like that child standing in the forest and crying. It turns out that all the efforts I made were for nothing. 

M. Laitman: What, crying isn't good? 

Student: I feel like the Creator gave me that state. 

M. Laitman: So, be even happier for that.

Student: I'm grateful for it. 

M. Laitman: Good. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:04:51) We just heard you answer our friend that the Creator gave us everything, but we haven't received it. We understand it happens gradually. It's a ladder, it happens along the way, but still our great teacher is telling us that he's satisfied, he's happy with us. So, what are the criteria by which you say that you are pleased with us right now? Why am I asking? Because usually these criteria direct us toward the future.

M. Laitman: I am happy of you, not that you're so successful, but because, simply, you're so small, and for that reason I'm happy with you. That you won't be cheated, that's it. 

Student: That's exactly the question. We take it seriously. We understand your love and your support. So, I wanted to hear, what should we aspire for going forward? How do we direct ourselves? It's not a matter of getting medals or prizes.

M. Laitman: You aim to be connected mutually above the conditions that the Creator is giving you, and in this way you can advance.

Reading Excerpt 6: (02:07:11) Baal HaSulam. Shamati 191. “The Time of Descent.”

One should behave in a manner of fearing the exaltedness, to know the merit and the distance between him and the Creator. It is difficult to understand this with a superficial mind, or have any possibility of connection between the Creator and creation.

During a descent he feels that it is impossible that he will have connection or belonging to the Creator by way of Dvekut [adhesion], since he feels that servitude is a foreign thing to the whole world.

In truth, this is so. But “In the place where you find His greatness, there you find His humbleness.” This means that it is a matter that is above nature, that the Creator gave this gift to creation, to allow them to be connected and adhered to Him.

Hence, when one becomes reconnected, he should always remember his time of descent so as to know, understand, appreciate, and value the time of Dvekut, so he will know that now he has salvation above the natural way.

Reading Excerpt 7: (02:09:15)  Baal HaSulam. Shamati 19. “What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?”

One must especially try to have a strong desire to obtain the desire to bestow and overcome the will to receive. A strong desire means that a strong desire is measured by the increment of the in-between rests and the arrests, meaning the time gaps between each overcoming.

Sometimes one receives a cessation in the middle, meaning a descent. This descent can be a cessation of a minute, an hour, a day, or a month. Afterward, he resumes the work of overcoming the will to receive and the attempts to achieve the desire to bestow. A strong desire means that the cessation does not take him a long time and he is immediately reawakened to the work.

M. Laitman: Questions? On this, please.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:11:00) We often read about having to try to make efforts. My question is: What's the difference between the effort and the doing? Because according to the experience in the corporeal world, if we do something usually there is a result. And if there is no result, then there is a good excuse why there is no result. I tried, I made an effort, but I didn't succeed. So the effort to do and the doing, what is the difference between them? What does it really mean, an effort? 

M. Laitman: The effort means: I would have wanted to succeed, but I didn't. That's the difference between trying and doing. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:12:53) Before the congress you said we have to get stronger in the Tens and with the intention of strengthening the whole world.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And now we received a lot of abundance. How does this abundance strengthen the world? 

M. Laitman: If we want that what we attained will strengthen the world, we'll know what we need to be prepared for - what to aim ourself towards. 

Student: There is a desire, that through this, the world will grow stronger. What should we do for this? 

M. Laitman: What should we do? To be in connection between us. That only in the right good connection between us, that it will be for the benefit in each and every one of us. We will reach a state that we will all be rewarded in revealing the Creator. 

Student: But there is a desire, and a drive, that the world will derive benefit from this, not my Ten. 

M. Laitman: No, it should be in the Ten first of all, and from that vessel I can work onward, and then the whole world. 

Reading Excerpt 8: (02:15:30) Baal HaSulam. Letter 47.

One who is adhered to the Creator feels himself as not adhered. He worries and is insecure about it and does all that he can do by his strength to be rewarded with Dvekut [adhesion]. A wise one feels opposite from one who is not adhered to the Creator, who feels content and satisfied, and does not worry properly, except to keep the Mitzvot [commandments] of worry and longing, for “a fool does not feel.”

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:16:31) What is this commandment for worry and longing? 

M. Laitman: When we need to show our right relation in the connections between us. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:16:58) Why does someone who's adhered to the Creator feels as someone who's not adhered? 

M. Laitman: So he'll have more of a space to correct himself. 

Student: He really feels this way, right? 

M. Laitman: He really feels that way because the Creator is infinite, and towards people there's always a measurement. That's why here there's a problem. How can we reach from something limited to an unlimited measure? 

Student: So there is never a state where a person feels himself adhered and he's not really adhered? 

M. Laitman: Adhered, even though he doesn't feel adhered. Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:18:18) In many friends new feelings awaken that we can't perceive well. If they're kind of inappropriate, we don't know if they're good, bad, happy, sad. We don't have the tools to interpret them. Is this correct? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, what should we do in light of these changes? How do we accept them? 

M. Laitman: Accept them that this is the relation between us and the Creator. We don't have true measurements towards the Creator. We can never reach that on one hand. On the other hand, we still have to determine that we are in adhesion with Him and in a direct connection to Him. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:19:58) I really want to express my gratitude for the congress. It was very genuine, very internal. We were very worried about you. We were thinking about how to intensify the prayer so Rav would be more and more with us. 

M. Laitman: I'll be there. 

Student: If the Creator created the evil inclination and us as an imprint of His. And He is infinite, so is our evil infinite because we're tired of it already? There's a desire to feel harmony, happiness, love, to feel it now and not sometime at some point. We need to do something so we can be in both, gratitude for Him, gratitude to Him, serve Him, and also not be afraid of this infinite thing. What should we do? 

M. Laitman: Love the friends; that's where we meet the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:21:27) What is in our strength so we can be rewarded with adhesion with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: In our forces is to ask, to ask of Him, that. 

Student: As of now, we can't receive what He is giving. How do we shift from request to action? How can we grow up? 

M. Laitman: That's true. You need to still ask. There's nothing higher than a prayer. 

Reading Excerpt 9: (02:22:34) Rabash. Article No. 18 (1986) "Who Causes the Prayer. 

One must not say, “I’m waiting for the Creator to give me an awakening from above, and then I will be able to work in the work of holiness.” Baal HaSulam said that in regard to the future, a person must believe in reward and punishment, meaning he must say (Avot, Chapter 1), “If I am not for me who is for me, and when I am for me, what am I, and if not now, then when?”

Thus, one mustn’t wait another moment. Instead, he should say, “If not now, then when?” And he must not wait for a better time, so “Then I will get up and do the work of holiness.” Rather, it is as our sages said (Avot, Chapter 2), “Do not say, ‘I will study when I have time,’ lest you will not have time.”

M. Laitman: Questions? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:24:35) It's not exactly a question, it's more of a wish to hear from you. For many years I've been in a state where I come to the Ten, to the group, and I disconnect from everything. I sit and listen, it's as if it's white noise, like someone in love looking at his beloved one. So I have no questions, no great scrutinies, but in the outside world it's becoming more and more frightening.

My friends in the Ten are sitting under missiles. My son's at war. My mother is living in a ruined city, and only here I can run over here. Here I feel harmony, love, happiness, joy, and it's become a habit. I keep running away to here. We have a clear schedule. In the Ten of Zoom lessons I have giant friends. Regrettably, only me and another friend from the Ten can be here today but whenever we come to this connection, we feel it in our hearts. But the outside world is becoming more and more scary.

And yesterday I heard, and you said it at the congress, and now you repeated it, that in practice our work is to ask of the Creator for our next state, to have this prayer for our next step, and where we should go. Because only in it can we find the whole truth, meaning the prayer of the Ten on our next state. This is our work today. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:27:08) Three questions a person needs to ask himself: If I'm not for me, who is for me? This is number one. If not now, then when? And when I'm for me, what am I? That's not clear. What should I understand from these questions? 

M. Laitman: That if I'm thinking of myself, so who am I at all? It's as if I don't exist. 

Student: Why don't I exist? 

M. Laitman: Because I'm asking about myself. 

Student: Who should I be asking about? 

M. Laitman: On the whole world, on friends.

Student: Should I be asking what I can do for them? 

M. Laitman: Maybe that's the right way to say it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:29:11) My question is this: In our society, I've been here only two years. I want to learn how to be the Creator's partner. I remember previous attempts when I took responsibility for my life. And now I want to ask how to develop the sensitivity to the place where I can make efforts every moment, take responsibility, work actively? And where do I annul before the upper force and give the Creator the possibility to direct me and I don't interfere with Him? And how do I find the balance between the two things? 

M. Laitman: It will come on its own. That will come on its own, that state. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:31:21) The question is: What is the importance of the shield, the shield we have to work with?

M. Laitman: The shield is a common force between all of us, that with it we can cover our desire, and make of it, from the will to receive to the will to bestow. That's why the shield is the most central element we have. 

Student: She was asking how to work with a sword. Rav, she spoke about the two forces, the sword and the shield. So, she's asking how to work with a sword. You answered about the shield. How does she work with a sword? 

M. Laitman: I can't get into this now. I'm already blurred out. Sorry, but I'm going to leave now, and I'll see you at when? 

Reader: We have a new lesson at 11.45. We have the preparation, and at noon, the noon lesson. 

M. Laitman: Okay, so all the best for you all. You keep going. 

Reader: (02:33:10) Announcements.