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

Daily Lesson (Morning) October 17, 2024.

Part 1: 19. What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?

Reader: Hello, we shall be reading from The Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati articles, article 19, “What is The Creator Hates the Bodies in the Work.” You can find all of our texts on kabbalahmedia.info as well as through the Arvut platform, where you can send us questions live. Anyone asking a question here in the study hall is requested to stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth, and speak loudly and clearly.

Reading: (00:43) What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?

I heard in 1943, Jerusalem

The Zohar says that the Creator hates the bodies. He said that we should interpret it as referring to the will to receive, called Guf [body]. The Creator created His world for His glory, as it is written, “Everyone who is called by My Name, for My glory, I have created him, formed him, and also I made him.”

Therefore, this contradicts the body’s argument that everything is for it, meaning only for its own benefit, while the Creator says the opposite, that everything should be for the sake of the Creator. This is why our sages said that the Creator said, “he and I cannot dwell in the same abode.”

It follows that the primary separator from being in Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator is the will to receive. This is apparent when the evil comes, meaning the will to receive for oneself comes and asks, “Why do you want to work for the sake of the Creator?” We think that it speaks as people do, that it wants to understand with its intellect. Yet, this is not the truth, since it does not ask for whom one is working. This is certainly a rational argument, as this argument awakens in a reasonable person.

Instead, the argument of the wicked is a bodily question. That is, it asks, “What is this work?” In other words, What will you profit for the exertion you are making? It means that it asks, “If you are not working for your own benefit, what will the body, called ‘the will to receive for oneself,’ get out of it?”

Since this is a bodily argument, the only reply is a bodily reply, which is “He blunted its teeth, and had he not been there, he would not have been redeemed.” Why? Because the will to receive for oneself has no redemption even at the time of redemption, since redemption will be when all the profits enter the vessels of bestowal and not the vessels of reception.

The will to receive for oneself must always remain in deficit, since satisfying the will to receive is actual death. The reason is, as said above, that creation was primarily for His glory (and this is an answer to what is written, that His wish is to do good to His creations and not for Himself).

The interpretation will be that the essence of creation is to reveal to all that the purpose of creation is to do good to His creations. This is specifically when one says that he was born to honor the Creator. At that time, in these vessels, the purpose of creation appears, which is to do good to His creations.

For this reason, one must always examine oneself, the purpose of one’s work, meaning if the Creator receives contentment in every act that one performs, because he wants equivalence of form with the Creator. This is called “All your actions will be for the sake of the Creator,” meaning that one wants the Creator to enjoy everything he does, as it is written, “to bring contentment to his Maker.”

Also, one needs to conduct oneself with the will to receive and say to it, “I have already decided that I do not want to receive any pleasure because you want to enjoy, since with your desire I am forced to be separated from the Creator, for disparity of form causes separation and distance from the Creator.”

One’s hope should be that since he cannot break free from the power of the will to receive, he is therefore in perpetual ascents and descents. Hence, he awaits the Creator, to be rewarded with the Creator opening his eyes, and to have the strength to overcome and work only for the sake of the Creator. It is as it is written, “One have I asked of the Lord; her will I seek.” “Her” means the Shechina [Divinity]. And one asks, “that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”

The house of the Lord is the Shechina. And now we can understand what our sages said about the verse, “And you shall take for you on the first day,” the first to count the iniquities. We must understand why is there joy if there is room for a count of iniquities here. He said that we must know that there is a matter of importance in the labor when there is contact between the individual and the Creator.

It means that one feels that he needs the Creator since, in the state of labor, he sees that no one in the world can save him from the state he is in except for the Creator. Then he sees that “There is none else besides Him,” who can save him from the state he is in, and from which he cannot escape.

This is called having close contact with the Creator. If one knows how to appreciate that contact, meaning that one should believe that then he is adhered to the Creator, meaning that all his thought is of the Creator, meaning that He will help him, for otherwise he sees that he is lost.

Conversely, one who is rewarded with private Providence and sees that the Creator does everything, as it is written, “He alone does and will do all the deeds,” naturally has nothing to add, and in any case, he has no room for prayer for the Creator’s help, since he sees that even without his prayer the Creator still does everything.

Hence, at that time one has no place to be able to do good deeds since he sees that without him, too, everything is done by the Creator. Thus, one has no need for the Creator to help him do anything. In that state, he has no contact with the Creator, to need Him to the extent that he is lost if the Creator does not help him.

It follows that he does not have the contact that he had with the Creator during the labor. He said that it is like a person who is hanging between life and death and asks of his friend to save him from death. How does he ask his friend? He certainly tries to ask his friend to have mercy on him and save him from death with every power at his disposal. He certainly never forgets to pray to his friend, since he sees that otherwise he will lose his life.

However, one who asks of his friend for luxuries, which are not so necessary, the pleading person is not so attached to his friend to give him what he asks for to the point that his mind will not be distracted from asking. You find that with things that are not related to life-saving, the pleading person is not so adhered to the giver.

Thus, when one feels that he should ask the Creator to save him from death, meaning from the state of “The wicked in their lives are called ‘dead,’” the contact between the person and the Creator is close contact. For this reason, for the righteous, a place of work is to need the Creator’s help. Otherwise, he is lost. This is what the righteous crave: a place to work so they will have close contact with the Creator.

It follows that if the Creator gives room for work, these righteous are very happy. This is why they said, “first to the count of iniquities.” For them it is joyous to now have a place to work, meaning that now they have become needy of the Creator and can now come into close contact with the Creator, since one can come to the King’s palace only for some purpose.

This is the meaning of the verse, “And you shall take for you.” It specifies “for you,” since everything is in the hands of heaven but the fear of heaven. In other words, the Creator can give abundance of light because He has it. But the darkness, the place of lack, this is not in His domain.

Since there is a rule that there is fear of heaven only from a place of lack, and a place of lack is called “the will to receive,” it means that only then is there a place for labor. In what? In that it resists.

The body comes and asks, “What is the work?” and one has nothing to answer to its question. Then one must assume the burden of the kingdom of heaven above reason as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load without any arguments. Rather, He said and His will was done. This is called “for you,” meaning this work belongs precisely to you, and not to Me, meaning the work that your will to receive requires.

However, if the Creator gives one some illumination from above, the will to receive surrenders and annuls like a candle before a torch. Then one has no labor anyhow, since he no longer needs to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven coercively as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load, as it is written, “You who love the Lord, hate evil.”

This means that the love of the Creator extends only from the place of evil. In other words, to the extent that one has hatred for evil, meaning that he sees how the will to receive obstructs him from achieving the completeness of the goal, to that extent he needs to be imparted the love of the Creator. If one does not feel that he has evil, he cannot be granted the love of the Creator since he has no need for it, as he already has satisfaction in the work.

As we have said, one must not be angry when he has work with the will to receive, that it obstructs him in the work. One would certainly be more satisfied if the will to receive were absent from the body, meaning that it would not bring its questions to a person, obstructing him in the work of observing Torah and Mitzvot [commandments].

However, one should believe that the obstructions of the will to receive in the work come to him from above. One is given the force to discover the will to receive from above because there is room for work precisely when the will to receive awakens.

Then one has close contact with the Creator to help him turn the will to receive to work in order to bestow. One must believe that from this extends contentment to the Creator, from his praying to Him to draw him near in the manner of Dvekut [adhesion], called “equivalence of form,” discerned as the annulment of the will to receive, so it is in order to bestow. The Creator says about this, “My sons defeated Me.” That is, I gave you the will to receive, and you ask Me to give you a desire to bestow instead.

Now we can interpret what is brought in the Gemara (Hulin p 7): “Rabbi Pinhas Ben Yair was going to redeem the captive. He came across the river Ginai (the name of the river was Ginai). He said to Ginai, ‘Split your water and I will pass through you.’ It told him: ‘You are going to do your Maker’s will, and I am going to do my Maker’s will.” You perhaps do, perhaps not do, while I certainly do.’”

He said that the meaning is that he told the river, meaning the will to receive, to let him through it and reach the degree of doing the will of the Creator, meaning to do everything in order to bestow contentment upon his Maker. The river, the will to receive, replied that since the Creator created it with this nature of wanting to receive delight and pleasure, it therefore does not want to change the nature in which the Creator created it.

Rabbi Pinhas Ben Yair waged war against it, meaning he wanted to invert it to a desire to bestow. This is regarded as waging war against the creation that the Creator created in nature, called “the will to receive,” which the Creator created, which is the whole of creation, called “existence from absence.”

We must know that during the work, when the will to receive comes to a person with its arguments, no arguments or rationalizations help with it. Though one thinks that they are just arguments, it will not help one defeat his evil.

Instead, as it is written, “Blunt its teeth.” This means to advance only by actions, and not by arguments. This is considered that one must add powers coercively. This is the meaning of what our sages said, “He is coerced until he says, ‘I want.’” In other words, through persistence, habit becomes a second nature.

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.

It is like a person who wants to break a big rock. He takes a big hammer and hammers many times all day long, but they are weak. In other words, he does not hammer the rock with one swing but brings down the big hammer slowly. Afterward, he complains that this work of breaking the rock is not for him, that it must take a very strong man to be able to break this big rock. He says that he was not born with such great powers to be able to break the rock.

However, one who lifts this big hammer and strikes the rock with a big swing, not slowly but with a great effort, the rock immediately surrenders to him and breaks. This is the meaning of “like a strong hammer that shatters the rock.”

Similarly, in the holy work, which is to bring the vessels of reception into Kedusha [holiness], we have a strong hammer, meaning words of Torah that give us good counsels. However, if it is not consistent, but with long intermissions in between, one escapes the campaign and says that he was not made for this, but this work requires one who was born with special skills for it. Nevertheless, one should believe that anyone can achieve the goal, but he should try to always increase his efforts to overcome, and then one can break the rock in a short time.

We must also know that for the effort to make contact with the Creator, there is a very harsh condition here: The effort must be in the form of adornment. “Adornment” means something that is important to a person. One cannot work gladly if the labor is not of importance, meaning that one is happy that now he has contact with the Creator.

This matter is implied in the citron. It is written about the citron, “a fruit of the citrus tree,”1 that it should be clean above its nose. It is known that there are three discernments: A) adornment, B) scent, C) taste.

Taste means that the lights are poured from above downward, meaning below the Peh [mouth], where there are the palate and the taste. This means that the lights come in vessels of reception.

Scent means that the lights come from below upward. This means that the lights come in vessels of bestowal, in the form of receiving and not bestowing below the palate and the throat. This is discerned as “and he shall smell in the fear of the Lord,” said about the Messiah. It is known that scent is attributed to the nose.

Adornment is beauty, discerned as above one’s nose, meaning scentless. It means that there is neither taste nor smell there. Thus, what is there by which one can endure? There is only the adornment in it, and this is what sustains him.

We see about the citron that the adornment is in it precisely before it is suitable for eating. However, when it is suitable for eating, there is no adornment in it anymore.

This comes to tell us about the work of the first to count the iniquities. This means that precisely when one works in the form of “And you shall take for you,” meaning the work during the acceptance of the burden of the kingdom of heaven, when the body resists this work, then there is room for the joy of adornment.

This means that during this work the adornment is apparent. This means that if he has gladness from this work, it is because he considers this work as adornment, and not as disgrace.

In other words, sometimes one despises this work of assuming the burden of the kingdom of heaven, which is a time of a sensation of darkness, when one sees that no one can save him from the state he is in but the Creator. Then he takes upon himself the kingdom of heaven above reason, as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load.

One should be glad that now he has something to give to the Creator, and the Creator enjoys him having something to give to the Creator. But one does not always have the strength to say that this is beautiful work, called “adornment,” but he despises this work.

This is a harsh condition for one to be able to say that he chooses this work over the work of whiteness, meaning that he does not sense a taste of darkness during the work, but then one feels a taste in the work. It means that then he does not have to work with the will to receive to agree to take upon himself the kingdom of heaven above reason.

If he does overcome himself and can say that this work is pleasant to him that now he is observing the Mitzva [commandment] of faith above reason, and he accepts this work as beauty and adornment, this is called “A joy of Mitzva.”

This is the meaning of the prayer being more important than the response to the prayer, since in prayer one has a place for labor and he needs the Creator, meaning he awaits heaven’s mercy. At that time, one has a true contact with the Creator and he is in the King’s palace. However, when the prayer is answered, he has already departed the King’s palace since he has already taken what he had asked for and left.

Accordingly, we should understand the verse, “Your oils have a good fragrance; your name is as oil poured forth.” Oil is called “the upper light” when it flows. “Poured forth” means during the cessation of the abundance. At that time, the scent from the oil remains. (Scent means that a Reshimo [reminiscence] of what he had remains, nonetheless. Adornment, however, is called so in a place where there is no grip at all, meaning that even the Reshimo does not shine.)

This is the meaning of Atik and AA. During the expansion, the abundance is called AA, which is Hochma [wisdom], meaning open Providence. Atik comes from the [Hebrew] word VaYe’atek [detachment], meaning the departure of the light. In other words, it does not shine, and this is called “concealment.”

This is the time of rejection to clothing, which is the time of the reception of the King’s crown, which is considered Malchut [kingdom] of lights, regarded as the kingdom of heaven.

It is written about it in The Zohar, “the Shechina [Divinity] said to Rabbi Shimon, ‘There is 

no place to hide from you’ (meaning there is no place where I can hide Myself from you).” This means that even in the greatest concealment in reality, he still takes upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven with great joy.

The reason is that he follows a line of a desire to bestow, and therefore gives what he has in his hand. If the Creator gives him more, he gives more. And if he has nothing to give, he stands and cries like a crane for the Creator to save him from the evil water. Hence, in this manner, too, he has contact with the Creator.

The reason that this discernment is called Atik, since Atik is the highest degree, is that the farther the thing is from clothing, the higher it is. One can feel in the most abstract thing, called “the absolute zero,” since there man’s hand does not reach.

This means that the will to receive can grip only in a place where there is some expansion of light. Before one purifies one’s Kelim [vessels] so as to not blemish the light, he is unable for the light to come to him in a form of expansion in the Kelim. Only when one marches on the path of bestowal, in a place where the will to receive is not present, whether in mind or in heart, there the light can come in utter completeness. Then the light comes to him in a sensation that he can feel the exaltedness of the upper light.

However, when one has not corrected the Kelim to work in order to bestow, when the light expands, it must be restricted and shine only according to the purity of the Kelim. Hence, at that time, the light appears to be in utter smallness. Therefore, when the light is abstracted from clothing in the Kelim, the light can shine in utter completeness and clarity without any restrictions for the sake of the lower one.

It follows that the importance of the work is precisely when one comes to a state of zero, when one sees that he annuls his whole existence and being, for then the will to receive has no power. Only then does one enter the Kedusha.

We must know that “God has made the one opposite the other.” It means that as much as there is disclosure in Kedusha, to that extent the Sitra Achra [other side] awakens. In other words, when one claims, “It is all mine,” meaning the entire body belongs to Kedusha, the Sitra Achra, too, argues against him that the whole body should serve the Sitra Achra.

Hence, one must know that when he sees that the body claims that it belongs to the Sitra Achra and cries the famous questions of “Who” and “What” with all its might, it is a sign that one is walking on the path of truth, meaning that one’s sole intention is to bestow contentment upon one’s Maker. Thus, the primary work is precisely in this state.

One must know that it is a sign that this work hits the target. The sign is that he fights and sends his arrows to the head of the serpent, since it yells and argues the argument of “What” and “Who,” meaning “What is this work for you?” meaning what will you gain by working only for the Creator and not for yourselves? And the argument of “Who” means that this is Pharaoh’s complaint who said, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?”

It seems as if the “Who” argument is a rational argument. Normally, when someone is told to go and work for someone, the person asks, “For whom?” Hence, when the body claims, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice,” it is a rational argument.

However, according to the rule that the intellect is not an object in itself, but is rather a mirror of what is found in the senses, it appears so in the mind. This is the meaning of “The sons of Dan: Hushim.” That is, the mind judges only according to what the senses let it scrutinize and devise some inventions and tactics to suit the demands of the senses.

In other words, what the senses demand, the mind tries to provide their wish. However, the mind itself has no need for itself, for any demand. Hence, if there is a demand for bestowal in the senses, the mind operates according to a line of bestowal, and the mind does not ask questions, since it is merely serving the senses.

The mind is like a person looking in the mirror to see if he is dirty. And all the places where the mirror shows that he is dirty, he goes and washes and cleans, since the mirror showed him that there are ugly things in his face that need to be cleaned.

However, the hardest thing of all is to know what is considered ugly. Is it the will to receive, meaning the body’s demand to do everything only for oneself, or is the desire to bestow the ugly thing which the body cannot tolerate? The mind cannot scrutinize it, like the mirror, which cannot say what is ugly and what is beauty; rather, it all depends on the senses, and only the senses determine this.

Hence, when one accustoms oneself to work coercively, to work in bestowal, the mind, too, operates by lines of bestowal. At that time, it is impossible that the mind will pose the “Who” question, when the senses have already grown accustomed to work in bestowal.

In other words, the senses no longer ask the question, “What is this work?” since they are already working in order to bestow, and, naturally, the mind does not ask the “Who” question.

You find that the primary work is in “What is this work for you?” And what one hears, that 

The body does ask the “Who” question, it is because the body does not want to degrade itself so much. This is why it asks the “Who” question. It appears to be asking a rational question, but the truth is that, as we have said above, the primary work is in the “What.”

[In Hebrew, citrus is Hadar, from the word Hidur (adornment)].

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:09) Happy holiday, Happy Sukkot for us here and in the world. You could say that the whole of the wisdom of Kabbalah is in a few pages here, from the beginning of the work down to almost the end of the work. What caught my eye is this sentence where he says, there is a rule where only in a place of lack there is fear of God, and only there there's a place to receive, and only then there's a place for labor, work. So, I ask, what is a lack for the Creator? He keeps talking about it. What is a lack for the Creator, which I don't know, I don't feel, I don't even know what it speaks of, and I need to feel a lack for it. What is a lack for the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Source of life. The Creator is the source of life. 

Student: So, I understand that the troubles we have, our lives being trashed, that's because I need to reach a lack for the Creator, whom I don't know, I don't know what it's even about.

M. Laitman: The fact that for the time being you don't know Him, that's a temporary thing. 

Student: What does it mean to know the Creator? 

M. Laitman: To know the reason for what's happening to you, 

Student: With my mind?

M. Laitman: The mind and in your feelings, everything that's happening to you.

Student: Let me understand. I need to believe that there is a Creator in the world, and I need to believe in something that I don't even know what it is. I need to believe in something where I don't know Him, I don't know who He is, and now I have to sit here and you tell me, you have to believe in… there's no connection between me and Him. Why is it like that? Believe. Believe in what? I remember once you said, stop believing, attain Him. Stop believing, attain Him. Stop believing like beasts, you're being told to believe, then you believe. No.

M. Laitman: If they wish to know the source of everything that's happening to you, then you have no other choice but to believe in our sages and follow their recommendations. 

Student: So, what do the sages recommend actually? 

M. Laitman: They recommend for you to engage in the Torah properly. 

Student: To sit, and study, and draw the reforming light for years and years until we attain Him?

M. Laitman: Yes, yes. 

Student: And for the time being to work without any knowledge, any… what? What is this work for you, it is written? 

M. Laitman: This is our lives. 

Student: So, every morning to study, draw Him in, and then we'll attain Him? 

M. Laitman: I don't recommend for you to sit down and study from morning till evening and from evening till morning. But nevertheless, you must accept certain conditions that will arrange for you the correct entrance into this connection with the Creator. 

Student: So, in everything we've read here, what is the most important in terms of getting to know Him, feeling Him, what is the most important thing in the system? 

M. Laitman: What does the article tell you? 

Student: Sorry?

M. Laitman: What does the article tell you? 

Student: As you always say, you all need to connect together. You work on your will to receive, on all yourself, and you'll come to attain Him. You know, that's what He speaks about in general lines. The process itself, to annul the will, to be above the will, above the mind. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: That's the work, nothing new.

M. Laitman: Because you can't attain the Creator with your mind and your desire. 

Student: Rather? 

M. Laitman: You have to rise to a different level. 

Student: What level? What is that level?

M. Laitman: The forces of bestowal, of giving, love of others, that's what you need.

Student: Not with my mind? 

M. Laitman: That's not in your mind.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:14) In this article, he writes of a certain transition where you have this mind, which gives us these questions. It depends on the senses, and if my senses are aimed towards reception, then the mind asks who and what, but if the senses are aligned towards bestowal, then there's no resistance from the mind. Now the question is, this transition, we learn about scent and flavor where what's beautiful is actually above the scent and flavor. Then the question actually is, how do I know that I'm working in the right direction? 

M. Laitman: Make a calculation that you're going, when you're going in the right direction, which connections, which forces, which components do you have and check it.

Student: Do I need to pay attention to the responses of the body? 

M. Laitman: The reaction of the body, of the mind, doesn't matter. What's happening to you in general? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:56) First of all, I must say that the heart fills with gratitude, and I feel how this article evokes a lack for spirituality, gives you power. Now I have several questions. He writes in the beginning of the article, he writes in the beginning of the article about the swing of the hammer. I marked it. Well, okay, he writes about the swing so that in order to make this transition from reception to bestowal, you need to swing hard, not make any little exertions. Maybe you can read them. 

Reader: (51:57) So he writes, a strong desire means that the cessation takes a little time, and immediately he reawakens to the work. And this is similar to a person who wants to break a large rock, and he takes a large hammer. And hits it many, many times throughout the day, but weak strikes, meaning that he doesn't strike the rock with one big swing. Instead, lowering the large hammer slowly. And then he complains that this work of breaking the stone is not for him. Since certainly you need some mighty hero who will be able to break that large stone. And he says that he was not born with such great powers so as to be able to shatter this stone. However, one who lifts this big hammer and strikes the rock with a big swing, not slowly, but with great effort, the rock immediately surrenders to him and breaks. This is the meaning of like a strong hammer that shatters the rock. 

Student: So, the question, what does it mean in our work to swing hard? 

M. Laitman: You have an awareness and understanding of what you need to do, and you have to concentrate all your efforts into a single action and carry it out forcefully. 

Student: All right, so it appears that this work actually is in small doses each time you make this effort. 

M. Laitman: No, it's not going to work in small portions. 

Student: All right, so that's the question.

M. Laitman: No, you need to pick up the hammer and concentrate your forces, and then carry out a big action all at once with the hammer against the rock. 

Student: Okay, he also writes about coercion many times in the article, where a person has to coerce himself, coerce his body, needs to work with coercion to reach that big swing with momentum. Now, the matter of coercion. I can understand coercing oneself, the body, the beast, placing it within the society, and that works. But again, it's in small doses. How can you even, how can you force, coerce the will to receive? How can I force myself to think for the benefit of a friend, to force myself to love a friend? What kind of work is that? 

M. Laitman: It's the work that you have to do above your desire.

Student: Above the desire, I understand. I can understand that I need to do that work that way, but then it's not with joy. Coercive, maybe that's what he writes there about it being an adornment without flavor or scent.

M. Laitman: You're doing the work in order to receive the strength from above to truly bestow to your friends and connect with them in a tight connection with love.

Student: One last question. This transition between working coercively, between the efforts one makes to coerce his heart to want what's good for the friends and the revelation, or the love of friends is revealed to him. This transition, does it happen once and forever? Or, again, to the first question, he feels some spark of love of friends, of revelation in the Ten, and again he returns back to?

M. Laitman: However they give it to him, it depends on what he has to correct according to his corruption. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:09) I don't know if I understand the question, really, but there's a critical part here. He writes that the importance, the important work is when he comes to being zero. Meaning, he annuls his entire reality and existence, and then there's no control to the will to receive, and only then he enters holiness. He says that this is the most critical point because there the Sitra Achra argues that it's hers, she owns it, and it's not holiness. What does a person do at that point? 

M. Laitman: He has to perform actions against his will to receive, to annul his will to receive as much as possible and be as a zero desire relative to the Creator, who is willing, who is ready for everything. 

Student: He writes here that it happens at the zero point, when one agrees to everything, he surrenders before the Creator, and only then this work begins. It seems there's a state here where he worked and worked, surrendered before the Creator, and then he's told, okay, now you start, do harder work despite this being the most critical, most pivotal point.

M. Laitman: He came to a state where he's willing to give up his entire will to receive, and he is asking the Creator to continue the work. 

Student: And then the questions of who and what awaken. There he says that it's the most important thing when these questions awaken. That's a sign he's serving the Creator, right? When the questions awaken.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:18) Baal HaSulam writes that when one accustoms himself to work through coercion, to work on bestowal, then the mind also transitions to lines of bestowal. What does it mean to coerce oneself to work in bestowal through coercion?

M. Laitman: In coercion, when he pressures himself he's working in bestowal. He requires all the actions, the qualities of bestowal and he's doing that specifically as much as possible. 

Student: How do you work through coercion in bestowal? 

M. Laitman: In coercion, meaning that you lack the desire for it, but you understand how important it is, and then you ask the Creator for the strength, for the power to do it, to carry out certain actions in coercion against the will to receive.

Student: I understand that bestowal is an intention. Maybe I can coerce actions, my actions here, but how can I coerce myself to intend bestowal? Is there such a thing?

M. Laitman: Both in intention and an action. 

Student: Can a person coerce an intention of bestowal for himself? 

M. Laitman: Yes, he's asking to have that intention.

Student: Okay, and then he says here that the mind operates according to lines of bestowal. What happens then? 

M. Laitman: He arranges himself to be able to work as much as possible on the lines of bestowal, meaning to bestow, and then the mind and everything else in him becomes accustomed to actions of bestowal. 

Student: Another question. Baal HaSulam brings a parable, allegory, story rather, about Rav Pinchas who wants to cross the river, and the river says, this is how the Creator created me, I'm not about to change my nature. How should we contend with such inner questions that awaken within us? I mean, this is how the Creator created me. 

M. Laitman: No, the fact that the Creator created, on the one hand, it's true. But on the other hand, what do you have to do? You have to work against the will to receive. So, pray, ask, do actions.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:14) How can we, right now, with this feeling that the Creator is raising our hands with the hammer to strike the will to receive, to shoot an arrow at the head of the snake as Rabash says there, giving us momentum, all of us together here in Sukkot, the holiday of Sukkot, the study hall is full, how do we strike hard, where He says that we need this?

M. Laitman: If you feel that there is such work, such an opportunity before you, you close your eyes, grab the hammer together, all of you, and you swing it.

Student: And we strike what?

M. Laitman: The rock. The rock. That's it. 

Student: What is our rock? 

M. Laitman: This rock is everything we have to shatter, break, and this way advance toward the work, more serious work. 

Student: And can we do that right now in the lesson, to strike it? 

M. Laitman: Do it. Who told you not to?

Student: So, you really think that this holiday now is the Creator raising our hands, giving us power to strike?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:05) I'll continue the questions about the rock. There are many terms here, blunt his teeth, right? He gives that example, the example of the big hammer. The question is, to reach that state where we go all the way to the end, is there a process here where a person reaches a certain quota, or can a person do it all at once? 

M. Laitman: There is a process. 

Student: What is the process a person has to go through?

M. Laitman: This is a process you go through before what's written here. He prepares himself to concentrate all his thoughts, intentions, forces, and he's going to shatter that which disturbs him from doing the work. 

Student: Is there a stage at which a person is already ready to shatter the rock and yet the mind tells him that he's not ready yet?

M. Laitman: Yes, let's say.

Student: So, how does he know that he's ready? 

M. Laitman: He always accepts it like that. 

Student: So, there will never be a state where he understands in his mind that it's time. He'll always have doubts until he just ignores them.

M. Laitman: Yes, he doesn't know in advance.

Student: So, there's a process until he reaches a state where he can do that, and if there's a process, there needs to be an end to the process.

M. Laitman: No, no, no, no, no. Before the action he can never tell if he's going to be able to make it or not.

Student: So, if there is a process where he needs to become ready to go all the way, maybe someone else can tell him, maybe from his Ten, maybe someone can tell him that he's ready but he thinks he's not ready.

M. Laitman: Who's going to tell him? He himself has to know that he must swing this hammer as strongly as possible.

Student: And if he'll always, as you say, have doubts, but at some point he'll have to ignore them? 

M. Laitman: Not always, but he has to work against his doubts.

Student: Okay, now another question. I noticed that some states happen when the person doesn't strike with all his might. There are states where the Creator intervenes and cuts the situation in an unpleasant way.

M. Laitman: No, no, no, it's not written about that. 

Question (Haifa): (01:07:12) When the Creator gives an illumination, then the will to receive is annulled, and there is no work in coercion nor is there any labor. So why is the person given illumination? 

M. Laitman: An awakening. So, he would try by himself to approach the action, the doing. 

Student: So, if a person loses, rather, does a person lose contact with the Creator during the time of illumination? 

M. Laitman: No, no, on the contrary.

Question (Woman Turkiye 7): (01:08:01) What is the condition for one to come to an annulment in every state in his life?

M. Laitman: In every state in life, only if a person notices the forces the Creator awakens in him, and he connects to his friends, and he's asking for help. And if he's doing this more or less accurately, he truly receives help, and then he shatters the rock, he shatters the stony heart. That's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:03) This rock, how to see it clearly, vividly in front of your eyes?

M. Laitman: It's in front of you. 

Student: It's present as a given state, but maybe a person doesn't know where to strike. 

M. Laitman: Let him ask, pray, think about it. Yes. 

Student: Now, can a Ten reach this scrutiny together? The common understanding that here this is a rock as a Ten? 

M. Laitman: You can talk about it. 

Student: And the hammer, is that the prayer? 

M. Laitman: The hammer is a prayer.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:59) I want to understand the definitions of scent, flavor, adornment. Flavor is where suddenly you feel flavor and importance in the work, right? What is scent? Smell?

M. Laitman: Scent or smell is like taste but one degree lower. 

Student: And adornment is where there's no taste nor scent but there's importance.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, what's the difference between the importance in adornment and the importance of flavor?

M. Laitman: I can't explain it. It would only confuse you to add more words here. 

Student: Okay, so first of all, the rock is when you feel the adornment, a certain importance, that this work is important, but there's no flavor in it. The will to receive is not willing. And then the prayer is? 

M. Laitman: You will continue to think about it. And then you'll make it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:29) He speaks of a situation, towards the end of the article, a situation where a person doesn't know what's ugly. He looks in the mirror, and it's not clear to him if what's ugly is the will to receive or the will to bestow.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And then he says that the solution for this is if a person accustoms himself to work in bestowal through coercion, then he receives the ability to sense and discern that the will to bestow is beautiful, the will to receive is ugly. And then he says that he hasn't the questions of who and what because it's clear to him. This seems to somewhat contradict the fact that the more we advance, the questions of who and what should actually be stronger. But here he says that the moment a person coerces himself, then there's no questions of who and what because it becomes clear. Maybe I didn't understand.

M. Laitman: We'll advance and we'll see. You're right that it's not so clear.

Student: One more point, which isn't exactly clear. He talks about a rock, a hammer to swing with momentum. And on the other hand, he speaks about accustoming oneself to work in bestowal. Two different states. If he accustoms himself this is a gradual, slow process, but with the rock it seems like a very dramatic situation where you need to shatter it. It even sounds a bit childish. I don't know how to put it exactly. It's also a question. You have this opposite, or do they both work together? What's happening? 

M. Laitman: Do you want to answer him? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:18) I'm not so wise as to answer that, but my question is similar. The question of who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? That's a cerebral claim. The mind is like a mirror, but the senses give it the permission to think about different things. So, what's the difference between mind and emotion here? If we can prevent the question of who with the mind, I can't make out the question.

M. Laitman: That's always a problem where we cannot really see the connection. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:21) He wrote that you have to make sure a person has a strong desire to attain the quality of bestowal. So, what's trying to get that strong desire? And what does he try? 

M. Laitman: To perform acts of bestowal however possible, with prayers, and they promise us that we will progress to the will to bestow. 

Student: How much should a person try and depict and understand what the desire to bestow is? Or it's just a request without a certain depiction on my behalf? How much should I attempt to get in there because you have to yearn for it? How can you? 

M. Laitman: To yearn and depict to ourselves what does it mean to be in the will to bestow? 

Student: And also, how bad it is to be in the will to receive? 

M. Laitman: It seems so. Okay. Well, women. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:31) If the exertion doesn't have importance so it can't work in happiness, how can I check? I feel that I'm never happy. On the other hand, when I'm here, I have happiness in my heart. How can I check if I have happiness or not? Because I'm always complaining to the Creator. On the other hand, in the lesson, I do have a good feeling. So, what is our happiness? What should it be?

M. Laitman: Stop demanding. Stop demanding and then you will come closer to becoming aware that you're happy. 

Student: So, it's the state that I have to receive what He's giving me and to agree completely. 

M. Laitman: That is always. Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:28) On one hand we accustom ourselves to enforce ourselves to bestow and not stop. And when we're sitting here in the holiday together, it gives a lot of confidence. On the other hand, we want to reach a strong prayer that He saves us from death. You said a few days ago that you know groups in Russia that aren't afraid to go ahead into what will be revealed. And I feel that in our Ten, we are afraid. And certain scrutinies force us to use that hammer in a strong prayer. So how do you get out of this dead end? And is this a mutual hitting of the hammer of the whole Ten? Or should I do this inside me? 

M. Laitman: No, we need to do that together. That's one thing. And in general, I didn't intend that there was some groups in Russia. I don't know where you got that from. 

Student: You said it a few days ago. It's not important. Should we really aspire in the Ten to reach a state and not be afraid to touch these tough spots?

M. Laitman: I don't know. Sometimes we manipulate these things such that they push entire groups to such actions that are not on the path of Torah.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:18:27) It seems that the condition that the will to receive resists the work, that it's simple. It sounds like it's within reason. 

M. Laitman: Well? 

Student: So, what should I do when it seems that way?

M. Laitman: Work against it. Even if all of its arguments are within reason.

Student: Is there something above it? Is there work above it? Or it resists? We work against it. And that's how it is in reason. 

M. Laitman: Yes, there is. 

Student: So, what is the work above it? 

M. Laitman: Work above reason.

Student: Again, maybe I didn't ask right. It's as if the will to receive resists the work. So that's in reason.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And this work could be easy even. That it resists and we resist back. So, above that, is above reason? 

M. Laitman: Above it.

Student: So, what's the work above it?

M. Laitman: First of all, against it. Against it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:00) The state of breaking the stony heart is it when we're completely in the other's desires and don't feel ourselves at all? How to depict such a state? 

M. Laitman: Why?

Student: Because it's as if we broke that self that's grabbing a reality through the Ten. How can I depict the state that we've broken the stony heart? 

M. Laitman: What is the stony heart?

Student: I think it's what makes me grasp everything through my will to receive? 

M. Laitman: The will to receive. So, what's the problem if we break it? 

Student: How to depict that desired state?

M. Laitman: When we break the stony heart, what do we reach? 

Student: That's my question.

M. Laitman: That's the question. So, then we have no more stony heart. So, what is left for us?

Student: Only connection.

M. Laitman: The will to bestow. So, what's the problem? That's okay. So, we'll keep going. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:58) Performing a commandment how's that connected? Because existence from absence is?

M. Laitman: I don't understand the sounds always cutting, I didn't hear.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:22:23) That central point should be in the happiness in the commandment. That on one hand, there's existence from absence, and on the other hand, there's a connection. Directed to existence from existence.

M. Laitman: Well?

Student: So, in the work of the point in the heart, we have to gather all the forces and break that stony heart. But to remain in the happiness of the commandment, that the Creator will still do it?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How?

M. Laitman: How should we do it? By praying. Pray.

Student: To have the forces to just stay in the process?

M. Laitman: The Creator needs to execute it. You need to make Him the one who does it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:23:49) He writes that the will to receive is revealed. And then a person has a tight, close state with the Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Then he writes that you should know to have contact with the Creator there's a harsh condition. But the exertion should be with the adornment, that the adornment will be important. But if it is not in importance, he cannot work in happiness. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, here he's speaking about the importance or about the happiness?

M. Laitman: About importance. The importance brings happiness. 

Student: On one hand, the will to receive is revealed, and I guess the person's on the left line, that he asks the Creator to correct his desire.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, that's the left line in happiness, that he's also happy from it? 

M. Laitman: Don't make such calculations, simply as it's written. That is all.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:25:19) The matter of adornment, he says that adornment is when he has importance?

M. Laitman: Yes. Yes.

Student: And you have to exert with the adornment to have the importance?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: But it has to be with no taste and no smell. That's what I understood at least from the text. Because if there's taste and smell, it's not an adornment anymore? Is it something else?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, when I observe reality, the will to receive constantly gives me taste and smell and all kinds of things. But the places that I don't have taste and smell, let's say in our constant work in the Ten, or when a friend is in great trouble or something, that it's obvious that then I pray for him. But in our daily routine…

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Is that the specific place we have to exert? That's where we have to hit, give that blow, the places that are supposedly…

M. Laitman: Where we're used to.

Student: Yes, regular, that don't have importance. 

M. Laitman: That's the entire Mitzvah of the Sukkah. It's full of that.

Student: Yes, that's exactly the holiday of Sukkot. So, how can we get ourselves used to work specifically in importance in the places that don't have taste and smell? 

M. Laitman: We try to be connected among each other. And when we elevate that connection above all the other discernments, then we start feeling that adornment. That is what directs us to the purpose of creation. 

Student: In the Ten, we have this law that once we determine something we all have to do it no matter if we feel like it or not. It's like a persistence. 

M. Laitman: Okay.

Student: The question is, well that's advice. That's like a tip we took that we constantly perform the action whether we're up or down. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, the question is, are there more like tips except for persistence? Like sometimes, like coming every day to the lesson. Sometimes you want to, sometimes you don't, but you always come. The question is, are there more tips how to reach the adornment except for persistence? 

M. Laitman: We have many such things. Where they usually act not according to the benefit of the created beings or the connection of the created beings, but all kinds of phenomena that have no scent and no taste, as it's written. 

Student: And maybe there's more advice except for being persistent and doing?

M. Laitman: No, according to our nature how the Creator created it, only persistence in what we are used to doing. And that's what gives us this additional flavor. 

Student: Is it right to say that in order to succeed in the adornment, first we need to enter this persistence? That it's like he's explaining with that hammer to constantly give blows?

M. Laitman: Yes, that's right. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:29:36) I need your help. Everything in this article, I feel that I'm so far from it. And this rock before me, it's not a rock, it's like a mountain, it's so huge that I can't even see the friends behind it. And without the friends, I won't have the forces to give that strong blow to the mountain. So, what do you do in such a state?

M. Laitman: You connect with the friends, and together with them, you shatter that rock.

Student: How to reach them if I can't even see them behind that rock? 

M. Laitman: No, no, no, first you need to connect with the friends. 

Student: So, I remember once we learned that there's importance of taking little steps. Could it be that I take little steps in prayer in order to reach them? 

M. Laitman: Don't seek something that you can carry out. Seek what you need to do. 

Student: Okay, I'll think about it, thank you.

M. Laitman:  Okay.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:31:18) At the beginning of the article, he writes a lot about a close contact to the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What characterizes a close contact? That the person does not forget it?

M. Laitman: That he is constantly drawn to it. And then the entire article becomes a means to reach this tight contact or tight connection with the Creator.

Student: He writes that the close contact is that a person, he has a close contact, but a person doesn't know how to recognize it. 

M. Laitman: Yes, that's what there is even without the person's participation. 

Student: That he's in close contact, but he doesn't know that?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: He just has to believe it. So, is that contact felt or not? 

M. Laitman: Seemingly not.

Student: So, the whole matter of the close contact is in faith above reason? 

M. Laitman: At the beginning of the work. 

Student: He says that that state is actually a result of a prayer. That there's a big need for a person that the Creator will help him. That's why he writes that prayer is more important than the answering of the prayer. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, why do we need an answering of the prayer?

M. Laitman: It's what the person receives from above. 

Student: But if a person is in a state that he's praying, and he believes that now he has that close connection, and he gives gratitude for having a place to work. Why does he need the answering of the prayer? He's already in close contact.

M. Laitman: But according to the answer to the prayer, he continues the work.

Student: So, he needs the answering just to direct him in a more correct way in the work? 

M. Laitman: Yes, that as well.

Student: How does answering the prayer it doesn't cause a person to lose that close contact he had with the Creator? He writes that when he has the answering of the prayer, it's as if he went out of the king's palace, he took what he needed and left. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How can he still remain there? A person prays for some connection. He was in a state of disconnection. He was in a low state. He got the answering of the prayer. So, the love covers that shattering. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So how does he not lose that contact now?

M. Laitman: He takes that contact and continues. Continues his path. He does not leave the Creator. He does not leave the contact with the Creator. He simply, what he attained, he takes that as a starting point for continuing his way. 

Student: And what helps him do it, and now that he'll just forget about it? Because now he feels good?

M. Laitman: He's in a contact. How could he leave it?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:34:54) I want to continue the scrutiny. He wrote that we must know that there's importance in exertion, that then there's contact between a person and the Creator, meaning that he feels that he needs the Creator. And the whole lesson we hear, and we've been talking about the attack. We want to give that blow to break all the barriers between us. How do we reach that state, that real need that only the Creator can help us? Because there's a feeling that we reach that point, but we don't really break it all, break that rock in one blow like he says here. Not blow after blow, but in one blow, all of us take this opportunity. And like you said many times, now we have the holidays, we have a lot of opportunities to incorporate with each other, to take this force, and to give that blow already. So, what is that true point where we feel this need for the Creator, that only he can give us this help and give that blow? 

M. Laitman: We need to exert more in understanding the steps that we go through, and then it will be easier for us to deal with what we go through. If I understood your question.

Student: We don't value what we're getting from the Creator enough in the work between us. We don't appreciate the effort, the exertion?

M. Laitman: It could be. It could be. But ask the friends, why do they not leap for the heavens demanding from the Creator progress.

Student: Yesterday we were at a holiday meal, and I was very inspired. I saw my Ten, we were eleven friends sitting next to each other. How do I take this impression that the Creator gave us the chance to be together? How can I give that blow, take the friends and say, friends, here, look, the Creator gave us an opportunity to be together, eleven friends. I told them, if I walk around here, I don't see any Ten with eleven friends here. He just gave it to us. I felt it. How to take it all the way, to really take it, that point, and to really… 

M. Laitman: That's a problem. You see, there are those who the Creator gathered as eleven, and there are those who He gave half of that in their gathering. And these and those are both in a certain state, in a certain weak state.

Student: I don't want to, I want to talk about my Ten. We gather here together. How do we raise it high, that will really break through here?

M. Laitman: I don't know. You see by yourselves in what form you need to be toward others and all of you together in order to reach being a tightly connected group, and really yearning and acting for the goal. It is all written before you. I see that you are ready to lower your hands and wait maybe for the time to influence that. Shut your mouth.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:40:08) He writes, to the extent that he hates evil, meaning he sees how the will to receive is preventing him from reaching the wholeness of the goal, to that extent he needs the love of the Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: But if he doesn't feel he has evil, he can't be rewarded with love of the Creator because he has no need for it, because he's satisfied from the work. What's the difference between a person who feels that the evil is preventing him and he needs the love of the Creator to a person who feels that the evil isn't preventing him and he's satisfied from the work? What is he satisfied from?

M. Laitman: The first one has satisfaction from the work and he has no complaints and it's hard for him that way to progress. And the second one who has no satisfaction from the work seeks how he can in any case execute something. So, he needs to be grateful to the Creator for giving him disturbances. 

Student: So, one who feels that the will to receive is disturbing him and he needs the love of the Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And the other one supposedly has the love of the Creator, he feels satisfied, so from what?

M. Laitman: From what he has, he has everything according to what he sees. 

Student: So, what he feels that's not love of the Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, what is love of the Creator?

M. Laitman: Love of the Creator is that a person feels that there is a Creator and the Creator loves him, either emotionally or intellectually. That's how he writes about it, that's how he speaks about it. Okay, what else are we doing? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:42:27) How to do the work from inside 100%? I'm listening to the article and I understand that the article is going through me. And I'm lacking the connection with the Ten. It's like the Ten is something external. And I'm trying to take the qualities of the friends and connect to them. But still, there's like a partition inside. As if I'm taking the Ten inside as something external to me. It's like my work, that hammer is aimed to destroy my relation to the Ten. But I understand and feel that I can take their qualities in some kind of way. And in this one quality, do the work. It's still not clear to me. I didn't want to ask a question. I was in my own scrutiny. But the friends told me that I have to ask. They felt it. How to acquire this feeling? What should I do inside to acquire the sensitivity?

M. Laitman: It needs to come. It needs to come soon and others will also feel that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:44:53) What I understood is that the only time we can work in adornment is before we reach the smell and taste. Is that right? That we're practicing the adornment because afterwards we'll have taste and smell?

M. Laitman: That's not precise, but we will discuss that. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:45:26) I wanted to know, what is happiness? Is it a type of fulfillment? 

M. Laitman: Happiness is a type of fulfillment, yes.

Student: So, you said if a person isn't satisfied from the work, how can he have happiness? You said a person advancing needs to not be satisfied from the work. So how could he have happiness? How could he have filling?

M. Laitman: If a person has happiness, if he's satisfied, if he has no empty desire, so how will he progress? 

Student: So, he won't have happiness.

M. Laitman: Right. 

Student: So, a person is advancing with no happiness for now? 

M. Laitman:  Yes, no he cannot. 

Student: So, about that strong big hammer, it's written that it's the words of the Torah. What does it mean? What is that big hammer? What does it mean that it's the words of the Torah that we need to attain?

M. Laitman: That big hammer is that we, in our desire, give a blow on the desire that interferes with us reaching connection between us and with the Creator. That is all. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:47:21) It's written that the intellect is not an object in and of itself but rather a mirror of what is found in the sentence?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, the intellect is actually a feeling? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, if in the Ten we want to deal with this question of who, and if we want to go around these questions of who and what, and work above scent and taste, and work on that adhesion toward the next degree that's coming to it, what do we do? 

M. Laitman: Yes, you need to make some efforts.

Student: So how do we do that work where we are really in that feeling, feeling that what the friends are feeling?

M. Laitman: Try and connect in those same feelings that you feel now more and more, and more to climb, and climb, and climb, and not to be afraid of making a mistake or failing. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:48:44) He writes here that even in the biggest concealment in reality, he acquires upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven with great joy. What is that state of taking upon myself the burden of the kingdom of heaven in concealment? 

M. Laitman: You try. 

Student: Try to do what?

M. Laitman: You try even with subjugation to take the burden of the kingdom of heaven upon you that whatever is happening is the Creator. 

Student: Meaning to be in there is none else besides him? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Is that something I do personally or with a Ten? 

M. Laitman: Also, personally. 

Student: And with the Ten?

M. Laitman: That's possible. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:49:39) Yes, I want to share with you and with everyone something. To my luck, yesterday evening, on the eve of Sukkot. A mother of a person who  a hostage was with us, her daughter is in the army. She was a guest at my place and there was a lot of pain, and after yesterday evening when I sat with her in the Sukkah, there weren't many people, four or five people there, and she looked at me and she had that feeling that she received this blow, this hammer, and that she still has this hammer, this blow in her mind. So, she said, “You know, my daughter is in one of these tunnels in Gaza, she's 20 years old, and then she asked me, you know, you study the wisdom of Kabbalah, so Tzvika, you and your Rav, how can you help? I'm a woman who doesn't believe in anything. I'm secular. How can you help my daughter go through this time in the tunnel, from this usual Sukkah that we are in, and my wife and me and my daughter, we're all crying, and then we're all speaking here in theories, with a hammer, to do a blow, to do this work between us, to attain the Creator. If we do not, for a single moment this evening or the last week, these same women, 19, 20 years old, wishing for them to sit under a Sukkah, I see that they are there. So, I'm asking myself, what is our solidarity, those who study the wisdom of Kabbalah, who feel pain, that they're connecting, they're in the sorrow of the Shechina, and all these things. What is this bit of mercy that we can give, where we can ask from the Creator, all of us together, with this common cry? We're simply sitting and listening to the people, listening to their pain, and I'm also feeling a lot of pain, I’m also feeling painful with what happens in my home. So, I'm asking you, Rav, how can we help? How can we come with this request to the Creator? It's enough, that it's enough. There's a daughter there, 20 years old, and not just her, but there's many people there, in these tunnels there, suffering, and how can we help? I don't know how to help. I'm sitting there helplessly. We're studying, we're passing time, and everything's fine. We're progressing, but how can we, as their friends, let's say, as a nation, think of them as our daughters, how can we help them? How can we come with a request to the Creator, to open this topic? I don't know. Do you have a solution for that? 

M. Laitman: Me? 

Student: I don't know. Maybe you should say, think about it. Maybe you run to Miron, or some kind of graves of righteous. I don't know what the solution is to this. What solution can there be? How can it possibly be possible to think about that some girl is there, 20 years old, and tomorrow she could get a bullet in the head? I don't know. I'm seeing this daughter here sitting with me, and I'm crying together with her. That mother there is sitting there all the time, crying. I don't know. Hammer on the head. She got this hammer. We're in this theories, and she got this hammer. She got this blow.

M. Laitman: I don't have an answer.

Student: You say that you're in connection with Rabash, our Rabash. You cannot request from him that he will request from the heavens for these girls, 20 years old. There's all kinds of girls like these sitting down there. Girls. I've got this woman sitting next to me crying, and I'm torn apart to pieces. She said, think about my daughter, that something will happen. She was saying, do something. She's telling us, do something. So, I don't know. I'm raising my hands to the Creator. I'm saying, let help come. I don't know. 

M. Laitman: I don't know where we'll get to.

Student: Can we help somewhat? 

M. Laitman: Yes. When the pain in our heart will ascend upward, above all the degrees, above all the heights, and we'll reach the heavens. 

Student: Is there such an option? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: We lack a lot here. 

M. Laitman: We're lacking connection, a connection of the hearts, and connection of all the pains. 

Student: Maybe we can think about them, that I feel that there's a lot of strength here, a lot of forces. So, what I'm asking, maybe that we can think about them, maybe you, maybe the friends too, friends all around the world who are listening to us now, that we can really request a bit of thought, to raise this prayer, this begging to the Creator, so really, let's think about them, that it's enough. You know, I think it's like water above their heads already, that there's no solution to it. It simply pains the heart, so let us think about them. Thank you very much for listening.

M. Laitman: We are with you, yes. Thank you. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:56:03) I want to keep on the same direction like the friend. I came from Germany here now, and friends are telling me I should go back, but I don't want to go back. This is the only place I want to be here with you. Yesterday a friend told me there are seven front lines in Israel. Israel has to fight on seven front lines. What else do we need? I feel the pain. I was going down to Eilat, and there were missiles flying over us. I saw the sparks of the rockets, and it doesn't matter, because I feel that we are in the hands of God. I have fear, but it doesn't matter. This is the only place we can be. And the stone is our indifference. We cannot be indifferent, and we just need to feel our pain. We have the chance to build a Sukkah in our heart. Right now, I'm asking you, we are here together. We invite Abraham and all the forefathers here. This is the only place to be. I only want to be with you because we are Am Yisrael. We have to remember who we are. We are together, and we can do the strike. Let's pray together now. Boreh, we are in despair. You brought us here together as Am Yisrael. Am Yisrael, we cry to you. You are the only one who can help us. And we gather our forces. Please hear our cry. Amen.

(02:00:12): Teacher begins to sing Am Yisrael and students join in.