The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) August 30, 2024.
Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Letter 60,44.
Reader: Hello, we shall be reading Letter number 60, Baal HaSulam's Letter number 60. You can find that in our website, kabbalahmedia.info. And anyone asking a question here in the study hall is requested to stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth and to speak loudly and clearly.
Reading Letter 60: (00:30) Introduction. Baal HaSulam wrote this letter in response to a question that was sent to him following the publication of the essay Matan Torah [“The Giving of the Torah”], where he elaborates on the commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” being the whole of the Torah, and that it means that one should be care for one’s friend’s benefit no less than one cares for one’s own benefit. The sender of the question did not know Baal HaSulam at all, but came across his essay. Baal HaSulam copied the question and underneath it wrote his reply. According to the manner of the writing, it seems as though he intended to publish it in future publications.
…I am not against, on the contrary, I wish the two hundred thousand people in the country would see only to their benefit… the needs, indeed… if… the essence of the Torah is only to be concerned with people and nothing more, why do all of the Torah, the authors of the Talmud, the rabbinical authorities hardly speak of it at all? Did they all abandon the main issue and dealt only with the marginal? In my view, all your words in this regard completely contradict conventional religion in Israel, and as has been the norm among us. In my opinion, this required force is a new construction, a new method that you have invented from your own mind. Of course, I am only expressing my opinion.
Signed, M.L. Petah Tikva
It seems as though you did not delve in my words sufficiently. All I wrote was that there was a precondition from the beginning of the reception of the Torah, but afterward, since the time of the making of the calf, the package has been taken apart, since wars occurred and the children of Levi killed three thousand men by the word of the Creator, and then the grievances against Moses and Aaron, and the spies. Naturally, all those did not add love or unity.
Afterward, after the coming to the land [of Israel], it was still not quiet. Hence, it was irrelevant to ask anyone to uphold this prime commandment. However, in order for the Torah not to be forgotten from Israel, they began to engage in the rest of the commandments although they had abandoned its main point, since they had no other choice. Perhaps this is what our sages meant when they asked about the ruin of the Second Temple, that there was no idolatry there and they were proficient in Torah, so why was it ruined? They said it was for unfounded hatred. Perhaps this means that it was because they could not engage in the heart of the construction of the Torah, which is “love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:09) I want to ask, this unfounded hatred which is the cause for all the disasters across history. When was it revealed in the people of Israel? Where did it start?
M. Laitman: It started from the Creator. He says, I created the evil inclination.
Student: Is it prior to the reception of the Torah, after, before exiting Egypt? There was a people and they accepted this law?
M. Laitman: There was a people who accepted this rule of ‘love thy friend as thyself,’ according to what they understood. He felt the exile from this law, from love of the created beings, and love of the Creator, and this is called the exile in Egypt. That's how they existed. And there were struggles and fights and killings, and there were problems. But still the question is did they understand they had to reach utter love? This is a question here. To what extent a person feels that it touches his soul. But they existed, some in internal struggles and others not; it depends on how a person accepts his nature. How a person accepts his nature, which is entirely against love. For self-love, yes, but love of others.. it's even difficult to understand that this is the demand, it is so opposite. And that's all of history. The status between love of self and love of others.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:22) We're sitting where they tell us. So first of all, the question here is very clear. To this day, people ask the same thing. Why do you speak about love of friends as the main thing when the 613 commandments are the main thing, similarly? But I want to understand Baal HaSulam's answer better, because he says, from what I understand, he says, that this was always the main thing, and certainly at the time of the reception of the Torah. But back then there was also the sin of the calf, and the tribe of Levi killed 3,000 people and wars began. So, it was a bit too much for them, the love thing. And so they were given other commandments, 612 commandments other than that last one, and so they emphasized that. But logic says, no, you need to emphasize the commandment of love, because there were wars and things happening.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So why did the sages say, no, engage in the rest of the commandments and not this one?
M. Laitman: Because it was impossible to demand them to engage in love of others. It’s a commandment that man is obligated to love. He has to bring himself to love the others, and it's not in his strength, it's what the Creator then performs in the person.
Student: And today is it possible to ask for that, to demand?
M. Laitman: Today, to the extent that we can, that we want, we can draw the light that reforms, and then it does that job within us.
Student: The reforming light is the cure by which to achieve that.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: But today, can you talk to people about love your friend as yourself?
M. Laitman: No, but they'll understand some of it. That you have to relate to others as to oneself, at least to some extent of what's required.
Student: Now, even when they saw that the temple was about to be ruined, they say it's not because of idolatry and so on, but because of unfounded hatred. So even back then, the sages, did they not talk about this as the prime cause?
M. Laitman: As far as we understand, the matter of love of others is not discussed because it depends on man's soul to the extent that his soul hears, longs, is willing. That's why it's not discussed openly. But these are things that one hides from others naturally.
Student: So we need to actually do it, speak about it less and more, act it out?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:25) According to Baal HaSulam's explanation, it seems that you need a state of quiet in Israel and only then you can engage in this commandment. That's seemingly what he says. They couldn't because there were wars in the desert and wars within Israel, and it was impossible to engage in this commandment.
M. Laitman: Well, yes.
Student: But there will never be quiet and peace in the people of Israel, as we see.
M. Laitman: But if specifically, in this lack of peace, we long for connection and for love of others then we can understand that the unrest and wars and collisions that we have within the nation, they actually direct us to the good connection, even to the degree of love.
Student: If so, then why does he write that the land was not peaceful, and so there was no place to even to demand of anyone to engage in this primary commandment? It seems, he says, that you need certain conditions, and if people have concerns burdening them, they can't achieve love your friend as yourself. On the other hand, as you said, then you actually feel that you need it. So, it's not clear.
M. Laitman: I didn't understand.
Student: Sorry. Baal HaSulam says here that the people of Israel didn't achieve love your friend as yourself because the conditions were not right for it. There was unrest, there were wars, and people can't come to that. But firstly, there are wars all the time. To this day, we see the Creator will always make sure Israel is at war. So, this state of peace will never come about. But the thing is, when there are inner wars, you need love of others.
M. Laitman: Besides that, we need to understand what is the reason for wars, and whether we can certainly reach a good connection between us. And bit by bit, what can we do? I guess that's how our nature gradually builds the right discernments within us.
Student: In today's people of Israel, when there's pressure from outside enemies, we see that actually people break into factions and blame each other. There's no demand for love, your friend as yourself, that's generated.
M. Laitman: No, the whole demand of love thy friend as thyself comes to the person. And if he is ready and willing to accept it and implement it, it's not just that time comes, and like the four seasons of the year. It doesn't just happen one thing after the other, and that's it. Therefore, we have to try and realize it.
Student: So, what insights should a person from Israel have right now for us to move in the right direction a little bit?
M. Laitman: Now is a very good time. We see that the people of Israel understand, they're in an unhealthy situation, a bad state. We see how the mutual clash and even mutual hatred rise in the nation. And against that, if we truly want to rise to good, correct relationships then we have no choice, but to learn and know how to realize the love between us.
Student: Truly wanting to reach that, where does it come from? From within ourselves, from some insight that we receive or from above?
M. Laitman: From above, it comes to begin with. We don't have to awaken it from above. We have to awaken a deficiency from below, from us, and then it will appear.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:06) Why is it that today there is such confidence in this special method of the reforming light that allows us to reach that? I feel like many friends here, that this method we're learning today allows us to be guided towards, love your friend as yourself. So, how is this method we're learning now special when compared to different times in the past, when it was difficult to apply it, and now we can apply it?
M. Laitman: The recognition of evil, of our ego, which is against love thy neighbor as thyself, is a cumulative matter from day to day, from one generation to the next. And therefore, even though we don't feel it, as Baal HaSulam writes, we're at the threshold of redemption. Meaning that it should become revealed in us. Therefore, I think it's possible. It's possible. And the fact we feel it only in hundreds of friends and not thousands or millions, that's how it should be.
The beginning shouldn't be across the entire nation or across the entire world, let's say, no. It's a law that enters into practice, into action, in a very slow manner, at the border between the laws of this world, which are in order to receive, and the laws of the upper world, which are in order to bestow. And therefore, there are some conditions in that, against the nature of the person in this world, that a person has to transcend, rise above them and carry it out.
Student: We're now preparing furiously for the Congress, and we're talking about love, about connection between the hearts, lowering the walls, warming the hearts. Now, the conditions that we generate like that between us, do they allow us to feel that special something then?
M. Laitman: I think that if we all want to realize it, and that it will happen in us, then it will. Meaning, we have to understand that everything depends only on our desire and the beginning of our action.
Student: You talked about quantity, that right now it's only hundreds.
M. Laitman: Let's say, yes.
Student: Do you think that right now it's within Tens, right? It's within the Tens?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes. And according to the Torah, that's how we should be connected, in Tens.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:20) On the subject of the letter, the question here is about love your friend on the one hand, and the other 612 commandments on the other. And Baal HaSulam tells him the 612, that was because of the sin of the calf, and we were given other things to engage in, from which we will reach love your friend as yourself. That's what I gather. Now, with those 612 commandments we need to understand the sweetness of them in order to achieve love your friend. So, is it possible to say that the person asking the question himself cannot appreciate the value, the sweetness of those 612 commandments? And that's what leads him to ask about them being the main thing, and not love your friend as yourself. That's my question. Do we need to feel the sweetness of the 612 commandments?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: So what does Baal HaSulam say?
M. Laitman: He says, that from love your friend as yourself, you will feel how all the other commandments are integrated into that commandment.
Student: So there is no need to try to feel the sweetness of those 612 commandments. Just to feel that there are means by which to achieve love your friend as yourself?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:17) I also want to ask if possible about the modern people of Israel. Now, in public discourse around the question of the ruin of the Temple there are two main ideological stances. One side says that it's unfounded hatred that caused the ruin, and another side says that it's religious extremism that caused the ruin. They rely on writings by Flavius Josephus, and so they claim. And of course, the argument exists in order to shed light on modern events. So that's how they use it. So, we heard about unfounded hatred many times. But I want to ask if there's any truth to the other claim?
M. Laitman: Which is?
Student: Which is that religious fundamentalism, extremism caused the ruin of the Temple.
M. Laitman: What do you mean by religious extremism?
Student: From the writings of Flavius Josephus, he claims that there were sects that became more and more extreme in terms of religion. And they started fighting between them, and so they pulled everyone else into that inner conflict, internal conflict.
M. Laitman: So the question is, by what did the ruin from the Creator happen?
Student: Yes, the question is, we know what Baal HaSulam wrote. We know what the truth is, right? But I want to ask about the other ideological faction, let's say. Which says that it was religious extremism that caused the ruin. Is there any grain of truth to that?
M. Laitman: I don't think that the Romans cared at all to whom the Jews were praying. Ideologically, there certainly wasn't anything there. Just as they conquered the world back then, that was just part of that goal.
Student: So the side that gives this claim, they say that talking about love, that's just pointless. Our true problem is religious extremism. The problem is that we, the free people, lose our freedom for your religious extremism, and so on. That's the claim, the argument. So, I want to ask if there's anything here by which we can justify them, maybe. Or is it completely, completely false?
M. Laitman: It's possible that it was felt in some of the people in the nation, but it's not that this is the reason.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:25) Rav, this law of love your friend as yourself. We see these days people are talking about connection within the people, but not about love. Why is it so difficult? It's almost embarrassing to talk about love. What is it about love, this quality which seems even repulsive?
M. Laitman: It's repulsive, certainly, yes, because this thing is unnatural. It doesn't exist in human beings. Therefore, where it's discussed, where this principle is discussed, then it feels that it's artificial.
Student: So, what is at the root of love that makes it hard to even talk about, even say the word, beyond superficial love? You know, if we talk about something a bit deeper, it's very hard to talk about.
M. Laitman: Because, it is apparent that it's false.
Student: So it's apparent that the love in this world is false?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And so people are afraid of it? They're afraid of there not being any alternative? They don't know what true love is? Or are they afraid to find that their whole life is a kind of lie?
M. Laitman: Both.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:17) The Creator helps, but we don't see it. We see the wars. We see the killings. And what can help is drawing the light. And we need the light in order to want love.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And we need to want to draw the light to the whole of Israel, the whole world? Or do we simply need to try to draw the light and the Creator will know how to arrange things by Himself?
M. Laitman: No, we want to draw the light first of all into the Ten. That we will be connected among us in a good connection, in bonds of love. And when we feel that in practice, that it's actually happening, then we can continue onwards. That's how it needs to work.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:51) Baal HaSulam's answer, through the lens of our work in Bnei Baruch, is the main thing we need to do, is it to connect discernment from the left and the right in such a way, where none of them is redundant, and to intend to reach love of friends, a place of connection from where we can relate to the Creator correctly. And then the heart understands that the prayer is the thing that's actually at work. So, can we understand that generations, the previous generations had difficulty reaching a full prayer, and that caused the length of the exile?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And in that, we, the small ones, are more capable?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: All right. Good luck to us.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:01) Look, we read this now and I'm trying to figure out what Baal HaSulam wrote then and what's happening today. And he says that they were fluent in the Torah, but not in love of others. What Torah were they fluent in, proficient in? What Torah, if there was no love?
M. Laitman: Practical Torah.
Student: So everything’s dry, there's nothing to it. Is that what he's talking about?
M. Laitman: More or less, yes.
Student: So, he says the Temple was ruined due to that. And you look at what happened then, you look at what's happening today, you try to understand what's going on. Today it's even worse than it was back then. Today hatred abounds, and you tell yourself, wait a minute, what's happening here? You come to dread this insensitivity, unfounded hatred between people in the world, on the street. You can't even believe how people are completely not considerate and so on.
So he says love of others, unity and so on, nice things, but you don't see that. And you feel that they're saying the face of the generation is like the face of a dog. So people see us as ugly, right? You see it here, not outside of here, here. So there's no unfounded hatred like that all over the world, it's here. You feel that the central center of hatred is here. We're all in parts. It's terrible. How can you fix such a thing? And personally, I feel that there's no advancement. We hate each other more and the more people want to kill you, you want to kill them. There's no consideration for anyone. So, where are we headed? Just complete lack of sensitivity and sensibility?
M. Laitman: I guess we haven't yet reached the point from which we can begin correction.
Student: What does it mean?
M. Laitman: Recognition of evil.
Student: Thousands of years and nothing helps?
M. Laitman: It's what you see.
Student: Do you even see a future? What can I tell you? Look, I see this, I feel it on my flesh. As I said, my children are in the army, my kids. And I see what's happening around me. And they say, listen, dad, hatred, everyone hates each other. There are some small groups, where there's some fellowship. They try, but in general, I feel that nobody cares for anyone else. Each one cares only about himself. He doesn't care about what happens with anyone else. It's only about me, me. How can we change that? Isn't it time that we start loving each other? We're so isolated. We're in bubbles. We here are in a bubble. When I go outside of here, may God help us. I'm telling you, God help us. Nobody is considerate in any way, cares about anyone in any way. We're talking about the Congress, unfounded or unconditional love, but nothing radiates out. It's all here in our bubble. How can we change that? So that people in this nation, in this country care about each other at all. How to do that? How can we make that change?
M. Laitman: I don't have an answer.
Student: So we just continue like this endlessly?
M. Laitman: No, we have to fulfill what the Creator wants as much as we can, and expect Him to complete the rest.
Student: You know what scares me? Baal HaSulam says, no problem. No problem. There will be atomic bombs, one, two, three. It's all fine. That's how it's gonna go. And it's scary. You see that you're approaching that rapidly. And you don't see, how can I say it? You don't see any change for the better. You see things becoming worse and worse. How can we change that direction that Baal HaSulam laid out? We're following a terrible, terrible path here. In a moment, everything's over here. How can we change the future, change the direction? How can it be done?
M. Laitman: I don't know. This needs to come from above.
Student: So with God's help? How is it possible to change, to alter creation? What else can we do for things to change? What else? What more?
M. Laitman: To turn to the Creator. To pray. To pray.
Student: I get it.
M. Laitman: You have no chance to succeed any other way.
Student: So you tell me, that's everything that there is.
M. Laitman: No, it's not that you need to be despaired.
Student: You need to be in despair?
M. Laitman: Of your own strength, you need to be despaired. Yes.
Student: So if I come to you and I say, Rav, look, everything is getting worse, that means we're actually advancing?
M. Laitman: Yes. Therefore we advance.
Student: So inverted.
M. Laitman: It's not just inverted. This is something that's also understandable from our world.
Student: What can I tell you? I hope things get better.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:57) Lately, we've been talking about connection all the time. I want to ask what is connection? Is connection the place that the Creator should lead us to, together, and the whole World Kli? What is that place?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes, yes. To bring us to connection, only the Creator can do that. And the connection means that we all become as one man in one heart.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:29) Now, in the preparation we conducted here for the lesson, Hadera and the Haver groups. We started work finding that the problem is only between us. And I hear here from friends, everyone's talking about what's happening outside. People who are not exposed to the wisdom of Kabbalah. Where should we place the emphasis? Where should we focus our work? It doesn't seem, there's work to be done there, outside.
M. Laitman: In connection between us and the friends.
Student: So if it's all about the connection between us and the friends, it seems to me we need to start focusing more on the work between us. To find how we can achieve a greater connection. How to magnify our will, our lack. So that it begins to influence each and every one of us. Such that each one delves within, and scrutinizes within himself what he wants now, what desire he has now with which to turn to the Creator, to be corrected. We need to prepare ourselves. It seems that if we are ready, prepared, I think the Creator will bring everyone else, and they'll come and want to listen to us, to hear from us. But so long as we're not ready, people outside are simply stuck. That's what they are.
M. Laitman: Yes, you're right.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:26) Other than asking things from the Creator, are we obligated to engage in love of friends here in Bnei Baruch?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: I'm asking because what prevents us from… The Creator wrote to us, love thy friend as thyself. Baal HaSulam reinforces that notion. You tell us that this is the end of correction. We have a goal. We have everything right in front of us. So it hurts. It's unpleasant to the ego. I remember once you said that if you feel uncomfortable, but you're at risk, then you're willing to lie on the surgeon's table. So to continue the words of the friend from Hadera, we're talking first of all primarily about us. So Rabash wrote that one who can add to the love and doesn't add, that's also considered a sin. And that frightened me. So I asked you and you said, yes, always, if you can talk about love, you need to talk about love. Add to the love. Beyond connection, connection, connection, the Creator hides, is concealed within the connection. We have to work on love of friends, Rav, right, love?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:01) Still, I think the question stands. What's in this letter here? If today, I heard this elsewhere too, even if people agree that the purpose, the goal is love of others, love your friend as yourself, we heard that the Temple was ruined, because we couldn't keep that. And today we can't keep it either. So from engaging in other things, we will be able to reach that. So now the question is, what to answer such a claim. Is it true? If we're denied the ability to engage in love, as Baal HaSulam says, that the package was disassembled and the Temple was ruined, then maybe the same way they couldn't engage in love of others, certainly it seems we can't.
M. Laitman: We can’t.
Student: We need to reach the beginning of this business. And this is something I heard, claims from people around us, that perhaps this is like putting an obstacle before a blind man. You're trying to do something that you can't, and you're stuck.
M. Laitman: You're stuck because you are incapable of it. But of course to begin with you have to understand that it's impossible, completely. It goes against our nature, completely.
Student: Okay, so let's agree that the purpose is love your friend as yourself, but don't engage in that directly. Instead, do other things around it on the margins. Study the writings of Baal HaSulam, study TES, work on that, you don't need to work on love of friends, because in any case, you cannot derive any benefit from that engagement. Do other things that will awaken the heart. It’ll bring the light. The light will correct your heart, then you'll start feeling what love of others is, and you'll be able to engage in that commandment then. Right, so what to say? This isn't our way, right? We first of all, primarily, work on feeling love in our hearts towards the friends in the Ten. That's our path. But how to counter that claim, right, that there's no chance of achieving that in any case because we are broken.
M. Laitman: Yes, but each time when you make an effort, you want to observe, observe the love of friends from your heart. You turn to the Creator, and then it seems that you expect to receive that love from Him, that He brings it to you.
Student: Okay, so, now, from our work. To reach a state, where a person asks for love for the friends takes a long time. It's a degree you need to rise to, as Rav said. It's a degree we need to reach to even begin to engage in that. Because to reach a place where you can even ask to have love to some extent towards the friends, it's something the heart cannot ask for, cannot demand. And not our generation and not back in the past, when the package was disassembled, as he says, through ‘the sin of the calf.’ So, there are many claims that in our reality, you cannot do this. So, why do you break yourself in a way which brings you to despair?
M. Laitman: So that you come to actually need it and ask for it. I do what I'm required to do in order to reach a true demand.
Student: Usually, we say from the easy to the hard, from the light to the heavy. When you have some taste for something, then that pulls you towards it, attracts you.
M. Laitman: You have a Ten. You have Rabash's articles. It seems you have everything.
Student: Rabash's articles are truly.. they're different. Because up to those, you have the Writings of the ARI.[translation missing]
M. Laitman: No, nothing happens. Nothing happens to them. They just engage in dry Torah. Therefore, it’s written what is up to us to do, and this is truly in our strength to do that and let's realize it. All in all, we have to try and connect to such an extent that the Creator becomes revealed. So let's connect between us in a way that He has to become revealed. He must. And we'll demand it. We'll demand His revelation. If we truly make the efforts to match His revelation, that's all that we have to do.
Student: It sounds like the world is divided into two. Those who follow the path of Rabash and Baal HaSulam and those who don't.
M. Laitman: Yes. Yes.
Student: And it's also not a matter of logic. It's either you take this path because you have faith in it. And there's no logic that can justify this way or that way. There's many complaints. Why? Why no? But it's either you follow these Kabbalists, or you're taking a different path.
M. Laitman: Let's say.
Student: I'm saying it can't be rationally explained why today, as opposed to the sin of the calf, it's not even clear why the Temple was built. If this mishap happened, then how could they build the Temple if there was such a malfunction from the time of reception of the Torah until the structure of the Temple? How could they build it if there was hatred already?
M. Laitman: The Temple is an external phenomenon. There's nothing to it.
Student: I'm talking about the Temple that Baal HaSulam refers to here in this letter. That our sages referred to, pointed to, and said that it was ruined because of unfounded hatred. So how is it rebuilt?
M. Laitman: With the hopes of there being a connection. Bet HaMikdash, the Temple, is a copy from our hearts. That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:40) Unfounded hatred is basically, disparity of form. Meaning, it's a state that this is what we got, unfounded hatred. We're in a disparity of form to Him, and now we have to ask for unconditional love. And just what we do here, is to nullify towards the force that can heal us, correct us, and accompany us along the whole path. And like the friends said here, it's either you have faith or you don't. But once we feel it we have to understand, we're just in what's called truth. And once we feel it, we have to just understand how to change and correct ourselves together.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: (53:54) The person who writes to Baal HaSulam says that I think this is a new method and a new discipline that he invented. We learned here together with Rav that the people of Israel were founded around Abraham, around his ideology. Where he explained the destructive nature we have, and that we have to unite. Meaning, he collected individuals who united around this ideology and this is how the people of Israel were created. I want to ask if that's the foundation of Judaism? If Judaism was founded on that, then my question is, where did it go lost? It's the foundation of the people of Israel.
M. Laitman: Yes, but if they can no longer be connected, then this foundation breaks apart.
Student: So, they as if went back to Babylon, so to speak?
M. Laitman: I can't say that. But yes, so to speak.
Student: So, that's what I'm asking. So what, even though they came back to Babylon. What did they have in their hands from Abraham? What was left? And to this day, what was left of him in our hands?
M. Laitman: A method. A method. Records. Love thy friend as thyself, actually was within the people, in the people for a time. And we can reawaken it and come closer again. And this time on a bigger degree, higher degree.
Student: So what I hear from Rav's answer is that the only thing we have to do is to awaken the Reshimot, the spiritual recollections through the light.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Reader: We also have Letter 54 from Baal HaSulam. Or the Preface to the Sulam Commentary.
M. Laitman: Let's read it.
Reader: So, Letter 44 from Baal HaSulam. You can find it in the Study Materials tab in the Arvut System. Letter 44.
Reading Letter 44: (57:19) To the honorable students, may the Lord be upon them:
... and I must praise Rav ... whom I feel closer to me than the rest of the students, and I am deliberately praising him in his presence, so he will give praise and thanksgiving to the Creator for it, that after my leaning away from him for a short while, he was rewarded with connecting to me to a great extent. It must be a present from the Creator.
And concerning my not answering his questions in private, it is because so is my way in important matters—to change addressees from one to the other so as to not give a grip to the Sitra Achra [other side]. Hence, each one must exert himself to understand all the letters, without minding the addressee whatsoever.
Do not suspect me that his words are not properly engraved in my heart. Rather, I carry the load with him in all his labors, troubles, and pains.
It is true that for some months now he has been mentioning before me the great pain he has had in the side of his head. I wanted to quickly write him a proven remedy, which is to exert in Torah, but my way has always been that before I make my remedy known, I ask of the Creator that he would obtain by himself. After he obtains by himself, I, too, will come and fill up the words, “For Judah and more to call,” and I will tell him the remedy.
This is why I so rejoiced when I received from him after some weeks, words of Torah about the verse, “And the man Moses was very humble,” that he discovered it with a genuine mind—that the whole matter of salvation is in obtainment of Hochma and the secrets of Torah. I praised and thanked the Creator for it.
But afterward, I received from him a letter from which I understood that he had broken, “Let he not break his word,” and once again he perceives ways and salvations prior to attaining the secrets of Torah, since he wrote me that the pain has once again gripped his entire head.
Therefore, I hereby remind him that he had already resolved that there will not be complete, eternal salvation before he attains the flavors of Torah, and the flavors of Mitzva [commandment]. Therefore, he must not regret, except over the attainments of the Torah.
It is known that the Creator does not marry His daughter to an uneducated man, as our sages said, “Anyone who marries his daughter to an uneducated man, it is as though he ties her and places her in front of a lion.”
... It is known that the woman is always called after the man: He is a Melech [king], she is a Malkah [queen]; he is Hacham [wise], she is Hochma [wisdom]; he is Navon [intelligent/understanding], she is Bina [intelligence/understanding], as it is as is written in Tikkuney Zohar. It therefore follows that the wife of an uneducated person is named “folly,” since he is a fool, who does not know how to be watchful with kings’ honor.
The permanent residence of the evil inclination is a heart that is empty of Torah. But the Torah and Hochma reject the evil inclination from the heart, bit by bit. And because he is a fool, a woman of folly is prepared for him—Klipat Noga [Noga shell], who seduced Eve.
This is what the writing says, “Anger rests in the hearts of fools.” You find a perfect reason why the king should not give his daughter to an uneducated man. Unless your soul truly desires the daughter of Jacob, you need not give many gifts, as is believed by the external ones, of Hamor—father of Shechem the Hivite. Rather, exert for attainment of flavors of Torah and flavors of Mitzva, not one of them missing, for then his desire and her desire will meet and unite with one another, and the love will complete its thing by itself, without any assistance from aside, meaning by humans.
Yehuda
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:21) He writes, after I received his letter, he writes about the students I understood that he violated, may he not, let he not break his word, and that. What did the student do wrong, who was here?
M. Laitman: His approach to the Torah. He's not trying to correct the inclination. Rather, he just studied, learns.
Student: Intellectually, that is?
M. Laitman: Yes, intellectually, you could say.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:23) Look, he writes, And Moses was very humble. He discovered that the whole matter of salvation is the attainment of Torah and secrets and flavors of Torah and so on. What do we need to learn from it? What does it mean that Moses was very humble? What should we take as an example for us here?
M. Laitman: To learn the quality, the virtue of modesty.
Student: Humility? What's the connection that he becomes humble and cancels himself and becomes kind of hidden? And what can we learn from it, it's unclear to me? It's always repeated that Moses was very humble and so forth. What can we take from that?
M. Laitman: What you can take from it, is that we need to reach a state of... A state where you heighten your heart towards the Creator.
Student: What does it mean?
M. Laitman: You overcome everything that awakens in your heart; and by that, you come close to the Creator.
Student: He says that it was agreed for me that salvation will not happen prior to attaining secrets of Torah, flavors of Torah. What are these flavors of Torah that I have to attain?
M. Laitman: The flavors of Torah, that's a very high degree in all of your actions.
Student: What is it, a result?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Result of what?
M. Laitman: A result of you correcting yourself.
Student: So you can say, okay, if you go back, Moses was very humble, so what do I lack to attain the flavors of Torah? There is some formula here that I don't understand. You say he was humble even though the people of Israel frustrated him. He was trying to solve everyone's problem, and yet he was humble, meaning he attained the flavors of Torah. So I'm asking myself, it's a contrast. How can he be humble on the one hand and modest on the other hand to attain flavors of Torah?
M. Laitman: Yes, that's how it happens.
Student: So this is the great secret of nullifying to become sort of a zero?
M. Laitman: Also correct.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:30) He writes here that before I know my merit, I will ask the Creator, and then I will come and fill the words. So does it mean here that man always has to make the first step, and then the Creator comes and completes it?
M. Laitman: You can understand it like that, yes.
Student: Now, why is it always the case that the Creator, as if leaves the room for the created being to make a move, and if he doesn't, the Creator doesn't move and doesn't even try to help him? Why is it built that way?
M. Laitman: No, the Creator helps by giving the person opportunities.
Student: He gives opportunities, and typically it's hard to see them, so it seems like it accumulates. And then the Creator doesn't give an opportunity, he just gives a blow to the person.
M. Laitman: That may happen, but it's not exactly as you say.
Student: And how is it possible, like he writes here, that until the created being makes the move, how do we not miss the opportunity? Many times you say the Creator brings opportunities, we don't see them.
M. Laitman: That's true. How the Creator gives opportunities, that's according to his plan.
Student: If we look at a certain angle, you can sometimes have… You see the Creator gives opportunities, but many times they're hidden. They're hidden every moment there's an opportunity. Every moment, we're in some state where the Creator wants to give you everything.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And we don't see it.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: The question is how do we develop the sensitivity, the subtlety of the soul, to identify the opportunities each and every moment?
M. Laitman: To want to discover and receive the quality of bestowal.
Student: Which means what, in what way, to want to receive the quality of bestowal?
M. Laitman: At every given moment the Creator is giving you an opportunity to bestow, and you can't. And so you see that you cannot accomplish this. And so these opportunities all accumulate until they reach such a measure, where there's no alternative, you receive them.
Student: Yes, it comes to a state where it accumulates and then you receive them. And when you do, it's not easy because it's in the will to receive the Creator does it forcefully as if, but you see the good value in it. Then when you look ahead, you say, how can you do such a thing to yourself? It's like going through an operation without anesthetics. So how can you get to such a level where intellectually you understand that this is what needs to be done? The Creator showed you the example in an unpleasant way, but how can you be drawn to it?
M. Laitman: You're drawn to it, since the Creator is pushing you.
Student: And as you gave that example that you were lying on the bed in the hospital and said, operate on me. Meaning you had a desire, a strong desire for an action that is unpleasant. It's like slaughtering the will to receive and you laid on bed and wanted it. So how do you get to that state, where I want that I want that thing?
M. Laitman: Through looking more and more inwards. You can see the extent to which you must get rid of some quality. Then you reach a state where you hate that quality and you're prepared to lay down and have it ripped out of you.
Student: If what we read in the previous article that we are in self-love, then we don't see the flaws. How can I get to a state where I see the flaw? I don't see it. I'm blind to the flaw until that pressure accumulates. But how can I see the flaw without that accumulation that you talked about before?
M. Laitman: Here, you require love of friends.
Student: So, basically, our work in this effort, that is against nature. I don't want love of friends. It's also my feeling that we always escape love of friends to all kinds of things outside, to accept where the solution is. So, you say that if we do this overcoming between us here, that gives us the ability to demand this change from the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, I want to tie it to the Congress for a moment. The coming Congress, essentially the power of the Congress, can it help us in this effort of love of friends? That if in an ordinary state, it's hard for me to do it. With the Congress preparation, it can give us an inner strength to make many more steps in love of friends, and that will also influence what we just discussed before.
M. Laitman: Yes
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:36) It says here, it is known that the woman is always named after the man. The vessel is always named after the light.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So if we haven’t attained a name or a word, then the deficiency is always egoistic, because the heart is free of Torah. But exactly this deficiency, although opposite, keeps us searching for the right deficiency?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Turkiye 7): (01:16:17) What actions do we need to do in the study to not fall into the Sitra Achra?
M. Laitman: Besides connection, and a little study out of connection, we don't need anything.
Question (Women PT 6): (01:16:55) How do we get out of this permanent residence? They're asking how do we come out of this permanent state?
M. Laitman: We study Torah.
Question (Turkiye 8): (01:17:17) How do we get to a state where we get the acquiring of the wisdom?
M. Laitman: We study, and together with that we connect. So there is a vessel that we have to attain each time, and from it we attain the filling.
Question (PT 3): (01:17:40) What is the prohibition of Baal-Yechel Devarim?
M. Laitman: We're going to understand what the prohibition of not saying things is. We're still missing a few details along the way.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:18:10) At the end of the letter, he writes that we should exert for attainment of flavors of Torah and flavors of Mitzva, not one of them is missing. What is the difference, the gap between the two?
M. Laitman: The flavors of the Mitzva and of the Torah?
Student: Yes.
M. Laitman: It's a difference like between a commandment in the Torah, where the commandment, the Mitzva, is the action, the deed, and the Torah is what is revealed in the action. As from this, we also discover what was before the action, and the action itself, and what's after it, meaning the whole process. We understand that.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:19:23) He explains here why he praises the student who is... I'm deliberately praising him in his presence, so he will give praise and thanksgiving to the Creator for it. The question is, when is it correct to praise the friend, because there's a risk that the friend will receive that praise into his ego?
M. Laitman: Correct. But nevertheless, that's the direction that we have to yearn towards. Only that in practice, whether we should take this out or not, that's something we have to see. There's a certain sensitivity.
Student: In every opportunity, I have to praise the friend, or?
M. Laitman: No, no, no. We need to feel it inside us. But to take it outwards is, you have to be cautious.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:38) I have a question that has been eating me for a long time in relation to Baal HaSulam. A person who lives in our generation, and he had very high levels of spiritual attainment, he really reached high spiritual degrees. And the Creator didn't hear his voice in that he wanted to awaken the nation. And many people left. And if we compare ourselves to him, what can we do in our hands? How can we influence if he was unsuccessful?
M. Laitman: He didn't succeed according to the upper calculations. That that was the will of the Creator. But nevertheless, his study, his Torah, he succeeded in that in the whole world, there are many people, men, women, that are engaged in this. And day after day, they see that besides this method, they cannot rise above their egos, which is all the bad that's in the world. That's why we can see that all these things take place gradually, slowly, slowly.
Student: Does it mean that there's more understanding? We have more of a chance today than he had?
M. Laitman: Yes. There's more of a chance.
Reader: (01:22:45) We'll go to the Preface to the Sulam Commentary, and before that, a song.
Song: (01:22:58)