The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson August 19, 2026
Part 1: Rabash. What Is, “The Shechina Is a Testimony to Israel,” in the Work? Article No. 37, 1990
Reader: Hello, dear friends! In the first part of the lesson, we will learn from a recorded lesson from the 11th of August, 2002, based on the article, What Is 'The Shechina Is a Testimony to Israel,' in the Work, this is in the writings of Rabash. We will read the article together in the Ten, we have 32 minutes for that.
Reading: (00:45) What Is, “The Shechina Is a Testimony to Israel,” in the Work?
Article No. 37, 1990
The Zohar says (Pinhas, Item 491), “‘For the Leader on Shoshan Edut.’ Moses said, ‘Shoshan Edut,’ the Edut [testimony] of the Shechina [Divinity], who is called ‘Shoshan Edut’ because it is a testimony standing over us and testifying about us before the King. It is holy help for us to praise in praises. This is why it is called ‘Shoshan Edut.’ Moses said, ‘It is called ‘Shoshan Edut’ because the Shechina is a testimony to Israel, who are her organs, and she is a soul upon them. She is help from heaven, as it is written about her, ‘And you will hear the heaven.’ She is holy assistance.’”
We should understand why the Shechina is called Shoshan. What does this color [Shoshan is a rose] of the Shechina imply to us? We should also understand what it means that the Shechina testifies to us before the King. We know that Edut [testimony] should be by seeing and not by hearing. Therefore, we should understand what seeing is there here, to say that the Shechina testifies to us with respect to seeing.
It is known that we have two opposite discernments in the work of the Creator: 1) On one hand, we learn that the purpose of creation is because His desire is to do good to His creations. For this reason, He created in the creatures a desire to receive delight and pleasure, since to the extent of the yearning for something, so is the measure of the pleasure. It follows that the purpose of creation was that the creatures will enjoy the world. In other words, He created a desire to receive pleasure for the creatures to enjoy, meaning that the whole purpose was for the creatures to enjoy. 2) On the other hand, we are told that it is forbidden to receive for ourselves. That is, a person must not do something in thought, speech, or action for his own benefit. Rather, one should be concerned with doing everything for the sake of the Creator and not for his own sake, as it is truly against the purpose of creation.
The answer is that a person needs to work for the sake of the Creator not because the Creator needs that others will work for Him or to be given something. Rather, it is a correction for the creatures. It is as the ARI says, that in order to bring to light the perfection of His deeds, meaning for this act, called “to do good to His creations,” for the creatures to enjoy and so that there will be wholeness in this pleasure, meaning so they would not feel shame in this, a Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment were placed on the delight and pleasure that the Creator wants to give.
Yet, this is only when they have the intention for the sake of the Creator, meaning that because the Creator enjoys His will being followed and receiving the good from Him because He wants this, this naturally removes the issue of shame that the disparity of form causes because there is a rule that every branch wants to resemble its root. As the Creator bestows, likewise, when the lower one bestows, he enjoys.
When the lower one must receive, he is ashamed. Hence, this correction was placed on the will to receive for one’s own sake, which comes from creation, that a person should place on the will to receive an intention to bestow.
However, when a person wants to observe Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds] with the intention that this will bring him a desire to do everything in order to bestow contentment upon his Maker, and since this desire contradicts human nature, which was created as a desire to receive only for one’s own benefit, so when a person says, “I want to do good deeds so that through them I will be able to aim everything for the sake of the Creator and not for myself,” the will to receive for oneself within one’s body, which is called “wicked,” yells, “What is this work for you?”
And what is the answer we should give to its question? The answer is brought in the Passover Haggadah [narrative]: “A wicked one, what does he say? ‘What is this work for you?’ For you, and not for him. And since he excluded himself from the public, he denied the most important. And you, too, blunt his teeth.”
This answer is very difficult to understand. He is asking a question; he wants to understand why we are going to cancel the will to receive, which is the desire that the Creator created. We must answer him, since he is asking according to his view, that he is correct. Thus, why did they say, “Blunt his teeth”?
Baal HaSulam said about this that since he asks, “What is this work?” meaning “Why must we work for the sake of the Creator and not for ourselves?” There is nothing to answer to this. In other words, a person is given an answer to his question so he would understand with his mind. Yet, here it is impossible to make it understand because he is asking, What will the will to receive have if he works in order to bestow? If he were to receive later, after he wants to bestow, meaning if we could say, “Bestow, and in return you will later be able to be a receiver,” that would be bestowing in order to receive. This is called Lo Lishma [not for Her sake].
Therefore, when a person wants to work Lishma [for Her sake], meaning to bestow in order to bestow, there is nothing to answer it. This is called “Blunt his teeth.” In other words, the answer is that we must go with force, meaning above reason, since within reason, the wicked is right. This is called “Blunt his teeth.” He said that a person cannot defeat the evil at once, but that this work is in ascents and descents until a person is rewarded with winning it and taking upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven as faith above reason.
This is why Malchut is called Shoshanah [rose] or Shoshanim [roses] or Shoshan [another name for a rose], for the name is always given after the event, since we are not rewarded with the kingdom of heaven without the matter of blunting his teeth. This is why Malchut is called Shoshanah, after the act.
It follows that the meaning of Shoshan is “Blunt his teeth,” since there is nothing to answer to his question and we have to go by force, by coercion, although the wicked one, meaning the will to receive for oneself, disagrees. This is called Hakaa [striking], meaning that he fights with himself. When a person says to his wicked one, “It is worthwhile to serve a great King and we do not need anything in return, but only because He is great and ruling, meaning because of His greatness, a person should be satisfied when serving a great King,” the wicked one says to him, “How do you want to serve a great King? Do you feel His greatness, for which you are saying that it is worthwhile to serve Him?”
In these states, a person is sometimes unable to depict to himself any greatness of the Creator. Instead, he feels the lowliness in Kedusha [holiness]. This is regarded as “Shechina [Divinity] in exile” or “Shechina in the dust.” In other words, he does not feel any importance in the King. On the contrary, depictions come to him that push him away from the work of the Creator to the point that sometimes he even wants to forget about the work of the Creator, for while he remembers that he should work for the Creator and not receive any reward for the work, but the work itself should be his goal, this can be said when a person feels a taste in the work. At that time, the taste he feels commits him to continue the work and he does not need any reward.
But what can one do if when he comes to do the holy work and says that he does not want any reward for his work, then he has no reward that will obligate him and will be the reason for which he can work, and work gladly, for afterward he will receive a great reward because he is working not in order to receive reward.
Also, he does not feel that he will be working for a great King, so how can one work without any joy? He is told to work coercively, meaning without the body’s consent. This is called “Blunt his teeth.”
But from where can one derive powers to be able to force himself to work in order to bestow? And even if he overcomes himself, he cannot do such work gladly. That is, the work he does at that time is like that of a captive person who is forced to work. Each time, he says, “Perhaps there is a way I can escape from here so I would not have to work for others?” The only joy he has then is when he looks at the clock and sees that soon he will rid himself of the work.
It follows that when the work if full of sorrow and agony from having to work for others instead of for himself, can the owner look at how his employees are working for him, crying as they work, and saying, “When will I be able to rid myself of the work?”
The person asks himself: “Does the Creator want us working for Him compulsively?”
That is, they feel that man is far from the Creator, that he does not feel the love of the Creator, meaning that during the work, that he will love the Creator. He looks at himself and does not know what happened to the person. That is, where the work is for the sake of the Creator, the person should have felt closeness to the Creator during his work, meaning to have more desire each time to draw closer to the Creator.
But now it is the complete opposite. That is, he feels each time that he is drawing farther from the Creator, that the acts he does push him away. He feels each action as though he is pushed out, meaning that he is not permitted to approach and feel the importance of Torah and Mitzvot, and to feel some flavor in these actions. On the contrary, it is as though a distance has been created between them. It seems to him as though no one can stand the other, and all his actions, which he does by force, are to him as a burden and a load. He always contemplates escaping from these states, but he has nowhere to run except by sleep, meaning that he finds flavor only in sleep.
However, at that time, the question is, Why is it really so? That is, a person should ask, Why do I deserve this? Is this the Torah and is this its reward? Is it because I began to work on the path of truth—which is to come to do the holy work so it is all for the sake of the Creator—that I am being pushed out of the holy work?
Why is it that when the work was like the general public, meaning to do good deeds, and I did not think at all about the intention for the sake of the Creator, and I relied my work entirely on the general public, who think only about actions and not about intentions, I had a good taste in the work and in the prayer? I knew that I was praying to the Creator and that He hears my prayer, and I had the strength to continue with the prayer, and I never looked, when I was praying, whether the Creator hears my prayer. That is, I had no criticism over my actions and I was certain that everything was fine.
But now that I need to rise in the degrees of holiness, since I want to work for the sake of the Creator, in order to approach the Creator, what have I now? I am only growing farther where I should have been growing closer.
The truth is that we must believe in faith in the sages and not follow what human intellect dictates, but rely completely on what the sages told us. Baal HaSulam said that a person should believe that this is so although he does not see. Yet, a person must believe that the Creator does hear the prayer, as it is written, “for You hear the prayer of every mouth.” Since a person asks the Creator to bring him closer, the Creator wants to give him real closeness, meaning to give the person the delight and pleasure that the Creator wants to give. This is called “the purpose of creation.” For this reason, the Creator prepares for him Kelim [vessels] for this, and Kelim are called “need” and “lack.”
We see that there are only three things: 1) A person understands that if he wants to be a servant of the Creator, he must be abstinent and not enjoy anything, and then he will be a servant of the Creator. That is, in return for this, he will receive reward in this world and in the next world. 2) He understands that he must achieve the degree where he can work for the sake of the Creator, meaning that all his actions will be for the sake of the Creator, and he settles for this. 3) A person must achieve the purpose of creation, which is for the creatures to receive delight and pleasure, and not that they will give, since giving—which is that we must bring contentment to the Maker—is only the correction of creation.
According to the above, we can understand what we asked, Why when a person asks the Creator to give him vessels of bestowal, he receives from above bigger vessels of reception than he had before he asked the Creator to be given vessels of bestowal?
The answer is, as we said in previous articles, that if a person receives a desire to bestow right away, meaning that he will be able to overcome the small will to receive, he would settle for this, and the will to receive within him would remain uncorrected because it would not be revealed to a person so he could ask for the strength to overcome it.
This means that the fact that a person sees, when he asks to be given the power to overcome the small will to receive, and in return for the prayer he is given a big will to receive, it is not as the person thinks, that initially, his will to receive was small, and then from above he was given a big will to receive.
Rather, it is as The Zohar says about what is written, “Or make his sin known to him.” He asked, “Who made it known to him?” And he said, “The Creator made it known to him.” This means that the Creator made him see each time to a greater extent how big was the power of the will to receive with which he was born, as it is written, “Sin crouches at the door.” That is, as soon as he was born, it was born with all its might. This is why it is called “a foolish old king.”
However, a person need not know the full extent of the will to receive. Rather, this revelation of the power of the will to receive is gradual. That is, the evil should be balanced according to the good that he has. In other words, to the extent that a person exerts to cancel the will to receive, to that extent it is revealed to him from above.
As we explained concerning, “To the wicked, it seems like a hairsbreadth, and to the righteous, the evil inclination seems like a high mountain,” we said that since the good and the bad must be balanced, as our sages said, “One should always see oneself half good and half bad,” since they always go together so as to have a choice what to decide.
It follows that the bad is within man. However, the bad is revealed according to the measure of the good in a person. Hence, when one begins to walk on a line of truth, the bad appears in him each time. However, for each bad state that he feels, he cannot do anything except ask the Creator to help him, as it is written, “Man’s inclination overcomes him every day. Were it not for the help of the Creator, he would not overcome it.” It follows that man is powerless to overcome the evil, but the Creator must help him.
However, we should know that this, too, is a correction. That is, the fact that a person cannot overcome the bad without help from above is deliberate. This is so because if a person has the ability to work for the sake of the Creator by himself, he will remain in a state of Katnut [smallness/infancy]. That is, he will not need to rise in the degrees of Kedusha, where a person should come to attain the Torah, where the delight and pleasure that the Creator wanted to give to the creatures are concealed.
If a person feels that he is fine, he has no need for the Torah. But if a person cannot overcome the bad, and in that respect, a person cannot be satisfied, since he sees how the evil governs him, so he sees that he has no grip on holiness, so how can he be satisfied?
At that time, according to the measure of his overcoming, he sees the truth more clearly—that there is no chance he will be able to emerge from the governance of evil. At that time, when he asks the Creator to help him, he asks with all his heart. Moreover, often he despairs and needs extra overcoming to have the strength to go above reason, that the Creator can help him.
It follows that by overcoming and asking for the Creator’s help, in what is he helped? It is as The Zohar says, “with a holy soul.” That is, each time, the help is with a greater illumination. This is why a person cannot emerge from the governance of evil by himself, but rather needs the Creator to help him. By this, he will reveal his NRNHY of Neshama [soul].
According to the above, we should interpret what we asked: 1) Why is the Shechina called Shoshan [rose]? 2) Why does the Shechina testify to us before the King? That is, what should she testify? 3) What does it mean when he says that the Shechina is called “Help from above,” as it is written, “And you will hear the heaven”?
She is called Shoshan because it is impossible to acquire the kingdom of heaven, which is faith above reason unless when the wicked comes and asks, “What is this work for you?” and wants to know within reason what he will have by working for the sake of the Creator and not for himself.
At that time, there is nothing to answer within reason, since within reason, he is right, as it is written, “And since he excluded himself from the public, he denied the most important.” That is, since he denied the essence of the correction, which was in order not to have shame upon reception of the delight and pleasure, it follows that the Creator does not need to be served. Rather, the fact that we should work for the benefit of the Creator is for our own benefit.
That is, through this correction there will not be the matter of shame. This is what he denied. Hence, it will not help him to understand anything, and instead, we must go by force, meaning by coercion, which is called “Blunt his teeth.” And since this work is ceaseless, it is called “Blunt his teeth a lot.” This is why the kingdom of heaven is called Shoshan or Shoshanah [both mean “rose”], from the words, “Blunt his Shinaim [teeth].”
And what does the Shechina testify to us? that we are fine. We asked, Where does she see this?
The answer is that it is because she helps us. Malchut is called “Assistance of heaven.” This means that Malchut herself gives the help. This is as it is written, “He who comes to purify is aided.” Thus, she can testify that we are fine because she helped us in this.
Also, we asked, Why must she testify? We should interpret that once a person has been rewarded with the kingdom of heaven, when he can work for the sake of the Creator, he needs to be rewarded with the Torah, called ZA, a “King.” This is what she must testify, that he already has the kingdom of heaven, and is therefore worthy of the Torah, called “the names of the Creator,” which is the purpose of creation.
Reader: Let's summarize in the Ten the main point from the article.
Reader: We will now continue to the lesson from the 11th of August, 2002, please.
M. Laitman: (33:43) We read an article from the Rungs of the Ladder, Second Volume, page 258, What Is 'The Shekhinah Is a Testimony to Israel,' in the Work. The purpose of creation is to benefit His creations, and the person doesn't understand why does he have to reach something good, a good feeling, a good life. Even in this world, all the more so as it is promised, the next world, eternal life, attainments, the feeling of wholeness, eternity, why does he have to reach that in such a hard way? Let the Creator do everything as is His thought to do good to His creations. How come that in the thought of creation to do good to His creations there are conditions: we have to work hard, we have to labor and overcome all kinds of things and go through torments that are more harsh than death, life that is truly not life nor deat – why do we need all of these things? We need all of these things because the created being is something that is outside of the Creator, and he cannot reach the degree of being like the Creator. And only this degree of being like the Creator is considered wholeness and eternity. So the created being cannot reach this degree of being like the Creator unless he reaches it from the opposite side. Meaning that he is the opposite of the Creator, that he entirely, in all of his nature, in all of his thoughts, in all of his desires, is the opposite of Him, and then he reaches equivalence of form. Because the will to receive, which is the opposite of the Creator, the deficiency to be as the Creator, this will to receive, if it will receive a filling directly, it will immediately stop feeling the pleasure. You have to continue towards the goal. Now they reveal to you your vessel, which is even greater; that is, even now you're sitting on a vessel which is infinite, however, how much did you feel out of it? Let's say you felt 20%, now they give you 25% to feel, so these additional 5% are the heavier part, more coarse than in the previous vessel, because each time the vessels are revealed from the lighter to the heavier. So, it turns out that the person suddenly discovers how bad his qualities are. My vessel is me, myself, suddenly they reveal to me how I'm more evil, more coarse, more crude, more lazy, more, more, more – the opposite of the surrounding light that already shines on me. It turns out that the reward, the pay that I get for my good deeds, is a bad state.
So, the person is already in a confused state, he doesn't know what is happening. He wanted it so much to advance, he did so many things, he truly wanted to run forward, and suddenly he receives such a thing. Truly, there is never anything like that in our nature, where we seemingly receive a punishment, the way we feel it, punishment instead of reward. It takes away all of the strength, all of the desire to do something, it breaks you so much. And until the person understands it, until he digests it, not that he hears – he can't even hear it in the beginning – until he starts accepting these states of descent with joy. Because he already feels in advance, he assumes in advance what he will get out of it later on when he'll go through this state, what kind of revelation he will have in the vessels that are now revealed to him as bad vessels. So he already lives from the future, then he's happy, as Baal HaSulam writes there that, I'm happy about the wicked ones that are being revealed because the wicked ones that are not revealed have no hope. He writes that in The Letters.
M. Laitman: (38:41) But this already comes out of experience, out of the fact that he already understands and knows the whole process, he got used to all of the descents and ascents, and then he accepts these things with understanding. And besides the understanding, also with joy, even though he feels bad. You can't do anything about the feeling, nevertheless it is a feeling of lack of strength, like Rabash writes here, You only want to sleep, truly. If it would be possible to just take some pill and go to sleep for half a year, you'd gladly take it and disconnect until it will go away. So, one who is experienced, one who sees the future, right, what will come out of the future is in that state that will be born out of it, he sees the outcome of it, so he's happy.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:47) But everyone feels bad?
M. Laitman: Well, each one in our world feels bad. The problem is that people feel bad, which is not purposeful, right? Here, you have a feeling that in this good place, you would run for it, you would act towards it. You would be making efforts, actions, and they promise you that it will be good for you, spirituality, I don't know, the heavens will open up, angels will come to you, I don't know how you depicted spirituality to yourself, and instead of that, you get the opposite, there is no greater disappointment. It turns out that a person is truly frustrated, I remember these things. For me, it is truly a lie – whoa, I remember the first fall, the first descent, I didn't understand where I am. It was so dark. Even earlier, I wasn't so happy, I was in searches in my life. But to such an extent, truly, you know, like having such a block before your eyes, where truly you can't turn in any direction, where you will find there some drop of pleasure, somehow to live, somehow to feel something within, some sort of an image, something, there's nothing.
Student: (41:23) You certainly feel discernments in yourself, in your will to receive. Is it the surrounding light?
M. Laitman: Ah, I don't know about the surrounding light, I don't know about my will to receive; I'm talking about that situation, a person who starts and enters such states, he doesn't know where it comes from and why. But nevertheless, he has some disappointment, right, about the path. It's not because even a month ago, when he hasn't yet reached Kabbalah, let's say, he was also disappointed about his whole life – what did he come to us for, right? And when he is with us, and he hears that here you can find something good, to gain something, not the way it was there, where he saw that he was losing in everything. So, suddenly, he sees also that here with us, it's even worse. There, if you were despaired of one thing, you jump to another, from the second to the third. Somehow he was always able to run away from the despair and fill himself through something, you know? If work is bad, then you go with the guys to the bar, you have some fun, football, it doesn't matter what, but there's something in life. Here, the lack of a filling in the spiritual vessel that now started, it is greater than all of the vessels of this world. And then a person feels that he has, nothing remains for him in his life. There, he was disappointed, despaired a little bit here and there, but he always had possibilities to nevertheless have some life for himself. Here, nothing remains, nothing he can decide, but only to lie down, not move, if it's possible, disconnect himself and wait, maybe it will go away.
What does it mean, maybe it will go away? Not to feel himself. So against that, many states have to go through, you have to go through a lot of experience in order to understand that these states are an addition of vessels, that you need a greater and greater vessel, according to your forces. As much as you see that this thing is huge, what is falling on you now, this bitter feeling, but it is given to you precisely according to your forces. And then the next time you'll advance and overcome and again advance, and again you'll fall, A thousand times does the righteous fall and rise – this is what is written, what can you do?
But what can you do? Eventually you acquire a huge vessel; you don't know it, you don't recognize it. It also seems to you, by the way, that each time when you fall, you become even weaker. You are even more dependent on what will be done with you from above, that each time you are more and more a loose puppet, right? Not having the ability to determine and have your own forces, this is because they revealed to you more and more the spiritual vessel that truly does not depend on you. Until you will have a very big vessel and you will feel that you are truly entirely under the control of the Creator – Life and death is truly in the hands of the Lord. And this is something good, you should be happy about it, that your life and death are not in your hands, but rather in His hands. The path is not easy, it's not short, how can it be short? A person in this world, in order to study something, acquire something also, I go to the university and I also study from childhood until the age of 30. I study, then another 25-30 years I work hard in order to gain something, achieve something. At the age of 50 or 60 maybe you can say I achieved something, like that, in an ordinary way. And then for the last 10 or 20 years I already sit in my chair, I can't move, and I seemingly enjoy life, right?
And so my question is this: here, you want to gain eternity with infinite vessels. First you have to acquire these vessels, then you have to correct them, then to receive. This process is actually similar to what is happening in this world, right? But it takes no less time, possibly, than how you gain something good in this world, if it's something that is big. So what is so special? The problem is only that here you see what you're going to gain with the falls and descents and all of these things. You see that it also happens in the general public to those who want to gain something, everybody's like that, Going through exertion and frustration so, The sorrow of the public is half a consolation. But indeed, where did you see someone is happy and you replace your richness with a spiritual sorrow, your fortune with spiritual sorrow. If it were like that, we would never even approach the wisdom of Kabbalah.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:06) How can a person, in a state where he doesn't feel good, how can he choose, as if it depends on him to choose the Achishena [hastening it] or to just agree? If you show the person his nature and he feels in that state exactly what you said, how can he now grab hold of the Achishena [hastening it]?
M. Laitman: In a state of a fall a person cannot feel anything he can’t do anything with himself, but rather only if he established in advance all kinds of orders, all kinds of connections with the friends, then certainly he is capable of something. But if not, then no, if he knows that whether I want to or not I have to go to the kitchen and work, he gets up and goes, by that he already advances. If he knows that now I have to translate something or prepare something from the study materials and go and teach, then he does that, it helps him to advance. But if he doesn't have such obligations, then he just lies down at home, there's nothing that he can do. Or maybe he comes and he sits here in the lesson also just taking some place, occupying some place. In any case, you have to establish a certain framework. The framework means that I'm obligated according to the time. At the time of the fall, in the state of the fall, we're not doing the inner spiritual work, so we have to operate according to the times of this world. I know that at 3 a.m. I have to get up, come here and study; at 6 a.m., I have to eat, go and get some rest maybe, or maybe I go directly to work. After work I go and teach, or I do some work here in the center, and so on. That is, I then have to work according to the calendar, according to the time, and so it's forbidden for us to have in our life some – how shall I say this – some time which is not under some schedule, this is not good.
Student: So it's in some framework, but what is Achishena, hastening it, is that the framework?
M. Laitman: Achishena [hastening it] means that a person tries by his own forces, by organizing himself to exert in order to go forward with a faster pace towards the corrections, rather than the suffering will obligate him. Suffering, hastening it or in its time, means how long will it take me in each and every state to realize that this state is purposeful? It is purposeful, and that from here onwards I need to advance towards the goal. The recognition of the state, every state, it doesn't matter – ascent or descent, despair, disappointment, it doesn't matter, a state that is seemingly good or with a bad feeling, it doesn't matter which states – I have to catch myself, get hold of myself, that this state is purposeful and I need, by using it, I need to advance onwards towards the goal. For that I have to build a system and, as much as possible, to hasten this recognition, this is called hastening. We have nothing else to do besides that, this means the actions are not upon us, we just have to digest the process that we're going through, not more.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:04) The vessels are always revealed through a bad feeling. That feeling has various causes. Does it matter which causes engender those feelings?
M. Laitman: The spiritual vessel is revealed through the previous work, the previous success. If you succeeded in your previous effort with 10 kilograms, now they give you a load of 20 kilograms. With that load you fall, you can't do it, so then you need, you know how it's written in the Gemara, the Talmud. You have to call your friend, your friend together with you must, Stand up your donkey and load the burden on it, and then the donkey falls. According to the rule of the Torah, you have to do it three times, stand it up, load it, so that the donkey will finally be able to carry it and go forward. Alone you can't do it, it's only together with the friend you can lift up the donkey.
Student: But there are reasons?
M. Laitman: What, the reason for that?
Student: There are all kinds of reasons.
M. Laitman: The reason is that instead of carrying one bag, instead of that you're led to carry two bags, it's a sack rather. It's because you became stronger, you're capable of it, you just need help rising. But the power is there, what lacks is motivation.
Student: Does it matter what is the reason?
M. Laitman: There is no other reason for bringing a person to a fall. Nothing other than him succeeding in his previous task, and now he's made to fall exactly according to the magnitude of his powers of overcoming.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:10) When we speak about the difficulty to be having this work, there are different moods; there are also repercussions on the body itself, like illnesses.
M. Laitman: The sum total of states a person goes through with joy, ascent, or sadness, descent, and it may be a descent in sadness from the state. But joy, because of coming closer to the goal, these things can come at once together because they're from two different causes. My situation is bad but with respect to the goal, the goal is good for me, it shines to me from a distance. I'm determining my state relative to these two measurements, right? My measurement of the self, currently, and also the future state. So it may be that I am in despair and also joyous, happy. If I know that the despair is a good indication with respect to the goal.
So, this is what you're asking: can these things come to us? Do they come to us only as feelings, things we feel in our senses? Or can they also affect the general physical health of the body? The truth is that the body only grows stronger through this. Our body, the beastly body, from ascents as well as descents, it only grows stronger. It's never damaged or harmed, to the contrary, you add life to it. And life has two ends, it's as he writes, Baal HaSulam, It's the same as breathing, contraction and expansion, the same way we breathe. So there's ascent, descent and ascent. It can't be that there won't be a contraction, and then you'll be able to breathe with expansion, because it's the same place, it’s just contracts, shrinks and expands more and more. And so, through these descents and ascents, you receive life in general, the Torah of life, the light. Closer than it's the surrounding light, and it's closer, bigger, and until it becomes the inner light, until the inner light comes. Meaning, it can't be that from the spiritual path, spiritual process, never mind how many bad things you feel, it can't cause harm to the body. And the phenomena that you feel, that you go through during a descent, it can be felt as weakness, headaches, dysfunction. Really, your heart, your liver, your legs can't move, you're simply completely dismantled, taken apart, yes? But in five minutes, that state is replaced, it changes, you're like a hero, as if nothing happened, you can't even believe what happened before. You laugh at it, at the previous state, until the next state comes, and that's it. And ultimately, the body grows stronger from this. Yes, that is the life that the body was meant for.
Student: (56:44) What is considered success in certain states, or the previous state?
M. Laitman: Success in the previous state means that I now receive bigger vessels, bigger form.
Student: How was that successful?
M. Laitman: I succeeded in the previous state, I was working, I invested my energy through efforts, studying, all those things. I suppose that because I did all these things, I now received an additional vessel to correct, which is felt by me as a descent. We feel, we feel what we're given: if I'm given to feel a vessel, I feel bad, if I'm given to feel fulfillment, I feel good, that's all.
Student: So, if I didn't succeed, then I don't get a descent?
M. Laitman: If you didn't succeed, you won't receive a descent, like the still of holiness. You receive some fulfillment because everything is good, and you're righteous, and you're working and doing, that feeling remains throughout life, right? You can dance away your 120 years, like the Breslavs, right, there's no problem, because there are no descents or ascents, that's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:01) How can a person check if indeed he's doing the correct task? That is, a person, it might seem to him that he's doing many things, and all of that, but in fact, he's doing the task just in order to cover up for it. Like you said, you can dance for 120 years, you can do it this way, that way. But in practice, he's not doing the task. So, how can a person check in each and every state if he's actually doing the task?
M. Laitman: How can a person know if he's truly performing the right task, meaning if he's performing corrections, making corrections? In truth, are his actions for the sake or towards correction? He might be running around, making a lot of noise, but these things don't move him at all, it's like a game. Where you started the game, you entered the game, you didn't make any creation out of it. The game is within oneself, you spent your time well, right? Happily. So, how to know if we're playing a game or actually acting, actually working to correct ourselves, yes? Getting closer to the goal in some way; again, the clearest sign is the fall. It's the descents that come to you, it's the sensation of evil that a person receives by being shown how evil he is. That's it, there's nothing – when receiving an ascent, actually this too, you could say, is an indication – but it can be from anything else, too. It can be from gaining control by finding some success, different success in something different, and it seems to you that it's spiritual success. Now, the descent is the sure sign that you've advanced, that you're now acquiring a new vessel. You see, the expansion of the light and its departure builds the vessels, and it's specifically during the time of the departure that the vessel is created.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:39) When a person is inside the game, from within himself, what should he? When a person is inside the game, the task, what should he be incorporated with, what should he earn for this? I don't just do and do and do, a descent came, great, so successful. But while he's doing it, what can he add from within himself to this thing, so it won't be just a game, so it will be real, true?
M. Laitman: In order to not get confused, and we can't determine what ascents and descents are and what's beneficial or not. A person needs to set times, a schedule Baal HaSulam also writes about it in his letter. He writes, he does a few hours this, a few hours that. Meaning he gives an example to someone how it should be, so that you know that you're doing exactly what you should. Our learning, our study is more or less organized according to how it was with Rabash, and that we need to do, we need to continue like that. This part of the article, right now, and in half, in an hour and a half, the study of the Ten Sefirot, that's what we study now, other than that, what you know, you need to fill your time by engaging in dissemination, teaching. And the rest of the time, when you can't act physically, but on your mind and heart are free, maybe. Maybe you have this kind of work where you can't be free in your mind and heart, right? In your mind, let's say you're working in some, I don't know, special job that really, you need to be very focused, but to the extent that you can be free, you need to add into that empty space that you have in mind and heart during your work. You need to add work to that space, meaning a connection to the goal, to always be in that. That's what we learned that we should do, and according to how much you want to do it, the extent to which you prepare yourself through these states for the lesson. And how in the lesson, now we're starting to learn TES, how connected you are to the goal through that, and why am I studying, I'm not studying to know, but in order to reach something, corrections.
So according to your intention during the study, the quality of the exertion, it's called. According to that, you will advance, the surrounding light that you draw depends on the quality of the exertion. The extent to which you want the materials you learn, the text you learn, to influence your correction, to enhance it, to further it. And not just to fill the mind, meaning, to what extent am I thinking, what am I alive for, what's the goal; how can I correct myself, meaning how to bring myself closer to the goal; what is the method of correction; how is the study related to that; what do I need to demand during the study? So when you come to study, you receive it as a prayer, as a place for prayer, meaning a place where you can turn to the upper force to correct you, to elevate you, that is the main thing, all the surrounding light comes during the study. And the problem is that we're not advancing so much. And you'll look in half an hour when we start studying, you'll see all the people here half asleep, half just half dormant, half completely asleep, and some go out to smoke, so that's the measure of our advancement. The main thing is preparing for the study, dissemination, also, all these things ultimately serve as preparation for those hour and a half where you study TES.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:16) The purpose for which, to begin with, we came down to this world is in order to correct ourselves, to develop, and He will give us the good and the delight that He truly, that He wants to give, okay? Now, how does it help that now I come to study Kabbalah? I want to study, I want to truly reach it but there's a thousand and one different ways, different possibilities to be wrong, to deviate from the path. And it's like you really want it but you will deviate in a thousand different forms. How does that contribute towards the goal?
M. Laitman: So indeed, you finally came to a decision in your life that you need to reach the purpose of life, otherwise you feel bad. So you come here, you want to advance truly to reach the goal, and here you see on the one side, you're told that there's a path, a paved road, very clear. And when you begin to walk it, you discover that nothing is clear, it's all confused, every step is random. You never find yourself with having clarity, power, the recognition of the goal, able to do something. But everything is halfway loose, why, why is it so? It's built like that deliberately, to bring a person out of his ego, his will to receive. So he knows that the fulfillment of the will to receive isn't in his hands, but in the hands of the upper force.
Student: What, ultimately?
M. Laitman: If you don't understand the path, this is actually good, it's natural, it's actually a sign of advancement, of progress. But imagine yourself from the other side, you look at yourself from above, from the Creator's perspective. What would you need to do with yourself to bring yourself to the goal? You need to enlarge the vessels, and just in terms of volume, a big will to receive – why a big will to receive? For what, for light, for the light. You don't know what light is, so your will to receive is expanded, and now you're bewildered. I don't know, I want something, but what do I want, I don't know. I feel bad, it's already all wrong. If I don't know what I want, my mind is also completely disconnected, it cannot work, my mind works only according to the desire. I know I want this, and right now, how can I attain what I want? I will do this and that, various tricks, and I'll get there.
If I don't know the whole path, if I don't know – if it's not clear to me what I want – the mind becomes so foggy, and suddenly I feel that I'm stupid. You know, I have nothing to grab hold of intellectually, let's say, also in feeling, and indeed, what to do? To do, well, there's nothing you can do. You will gain many more states like that in mind and heart, this is called, yes, in mind and heart, that's how we call it for the time being. Until you come to a state of complete dependency on the upper force. Where your desire, and the goal, and the path towards it, and every action, it all depends on Him. And who am I, I'm just the one observing it, and no more. The Creator does everything from above, by His own orders, according to His planning. All these things are predetermined. And who am I, I'm just the one thankful for things being done in that way. But other than being thankful, so I'm just observing like some Golem? No, so afterwards, I begin to understand that I have in this, this is after the barrier, yes? I begin to feel, to see that I have an active role in this. I can act in His stead, I can influence my own development in His stead; meaning to the extent that I acquire, imagine to yourself, to the extent that I acquire His vessel, His power, I'm no longer down here within myself. I'm within Him. And then from within Him, from above, I act on myself, and I make myself, meaning I become, it's as if I'm working on myself from above instead of the Creator.
Student: You have to understand it also?
M. Laitman: I need to understand Him, that's why it's written, Know thy Lord your God and serve Him." We need to know, not, we need to be aware, not completely, but gradually to the extent in which I acquire His knowledge, His thoughts, His goals, His forces. To that extent, I start to take from Him all the work of, of Providence, of governance, of control, of everything. And I start to rule in His place, in His place, do you understand; meaning seemingly from being unconscious, being, lacking deeds, and despair, and weakness. And from zero, I come to a state that I'm like Him, in His place altogether, truly in His place, controlling all of creation. But, on the way, we really feel, like you say, confusion, weakness, misunderstanding, truly, completely out.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:18) Revelation of evil relative to the Creator. So, in the first stage, it's revealed toward the friends?
M. Laitman: The revelation of evil in relation with the Creator, the way it is received or revealed before the friends, towards the friends, it's revealed towards the Creator. Let's put it this way: if it goes together, it is revealed in a good pace, but it's revealed mutually; meaning, it can't be that I'm bad towards the Creator, and not bad towards the friends, or vice versa, because it's the same thing. Baal HaSulam writes that, That which is outside of a person's body, it doesn't matter. It can be his neighbor, the Creator, it can be, well, it can be anyone, it doesn't matter who. If it's outside of me, if it's not aimed towards me to fill my Kli, but rather to something outside of me, then for me, there's no change, no difference between who it's meant for. But, if there's a change, it's a sign that I simply don't feel that it is so that through it, I will fill myself. Hence, by working towards friends, we immediately see where we are in relation to the Creator, that's it. Didn't I answer?
Student: Did I reach such a state where I reveal the evil only relative to the friends, and I still don't feel the Creator, such a stage?
M. Laitman: Yes, of course, therefore, if I'm not, if I can't yet connect with the friends, like if I'm with the friends in a certain state in a bad way, somehow not getting along with them. And I can't discover that this thing is, what connection this has towards the Creator. Now, in truth, it's not important in what I feel in relation to them, what's important is the extent in which I, to the extent in which I – how should I say this – know my attitude towards Him. I don't know, I don't have other words. Well, we'll learn.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:06) What are these movies that distance a person from the work of the Creator, and how to see it as purposeful?
M. Laitman: What? What? Movies.
Student: Depictions, depictions.
M. Laitman: Well?
Student: How to say that this is purposeful?
M. Laitman: It's toward a person, nothing comes from the Creator in order to distance him from the work. Meaning, you're asking, what are those pictures that distance a person from the goal? I would say, we say it as if the Creator wants to throw a person, and a person's advancing and nevertheless wants to come closer to the Creator. But in truth, it's not done that way, it's all made from that same force of, To do good to His created beings. Where a person constantly receives assistance from above. It's just that this assistance is kind of felt once as bad and once as good. We need to build a Kli towards the light; so as much as there's a difference between black and white, between the feeling of the Kli and the feeling of the filling, then the state is more advanced.
There's nothing that throws a person from the path – the worst possible feeling there is, does not throw him from the path. And a person never leaves the path out of him being given such questions or some difficulties and disappointments. He leaves the path because he has distanced himself from the public, from the audience, from the group, and is not receiving fuel from them – he doesn't receive the support from them, only from that. And alone, to begin with, it is clear to us that we will not reach the goal, meaning anyone who doesn't want to connect with others and doesn't want to truly receive help from others, and accordingly does not want to contribute for himself. All it means is that he's truly a foreign part of our society, and you either correct him or get rid of him, that's it, there's nothing you can do about it. Baal HaSulam writes that, One who does not contribute is as if he's harming. We cannot measure these things, we measure a person whether he stole or he didn't steal. If he stole, then he's already not okay. He writes that it's not okay, what's not okay is one who doesn't give is also stealing. In spirituality, it's like that, that's why, that's how we have to see ourselves in the society. And if it won't be a law that way, then the society will not advance us. This ship of ours will not bring us to the goal. It altogether works according to spiritual laws, not corporeal ones; in spirituality, one who does not give is not working, is not doing, is harming. It's from the article, I can't remember, The Essence of Religion, maybe, or something, I don't remember. The Giving of the Torah.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:18:02) You said a person doesn't leave the path because he's getting states, but because he distances himself from the public. Sometimes one of the states a person undergoes make him want to distance himself from the public?
M. Laitman: The fact that I'm brought a state of a drop, of a descent, and I distance from the public, it's not that I don't want anyone,. It's a special state, a specific state, that altogether I'm distancing, and I'm being distanced by adding me more desire to receive now, and that's okay, that's natural, it's normal. But not in the states in which I can, I build an environment around me where I can build my free choice, build around me something that I can lean on and contribute to. To that extent, I will be able to receive the force of it. Without that, I'm not capable of advancing, not because of needing the environment, because the correction is the connection of the souls. We don't understand how much our work in this mutual way is connecting souls, that's the main correction. It's not that it's a means to reach the goal, it's not that it's possible with this means, yes, and you can't do it without that means. It's not the means, it's the actual work. It's not that I have a society and thank God I've been through this path and I don't need the society, go to hell, I'm alright, I'm close to the Creator, we're done, no it's the same.
Later, we discover also that the Creator is clothed in the souls, and our connection with Him can only be through the connection with the rest of the souls. We cannot receive the Creator, see Him, feel Him, but through other souls that we connect with. Therefore, Love your friend as yourself, is the great rule in the Torah. It includes, it's a law that includes within it all the nearing to the Creator. He is there – I dwell amongst my people – that's it.
Student: (01:20:06) So, what do I do in the states that come to a person?
M. Laitman: When I'm in a state that I can't tolerate anyone, it's called a descent, and as a descent there's nothing I can do. The state itself defines what I can and what I can't do. But in states in which I can and I need to take myself and maximally bestow, no one says to a dead person that he has to work and run and live. If the spirit of life left a person, then he's not capable; then leave him, leave him slowly, slowly. But when he's in an ascent, he must contribute maximally to the society. Like Rabash says, It's like in a dance, one goes up, one goes down, one goes up, one goes down. All together, everyone is kind of dancing and are delighted, and they're assisted by one another.
And again, it's not like the society that appears to us, we also give these kind of examples, but that's not exactly. Where it's kind of like a certain storage of forces, like I enter into you, and then you enter me, and you help me, and then I'll help them now and they'll help me later. No, it's not exactly like that, it's much more than that because there's a connection here between the souls through which, within them and through them, I feel the Creator. Through them, the surrounding light comes to me because a person, himself, each of us is a small spark from the general soul and must collect all the rest of the souls within him. Each one is included from all the souls, on the way to the goal, there's a period that's called that, He's sorry with the sorrow of the public. Where he truly, practically takes all the souls of Adam HaRishon, connects to himself, and by that advances. It's very difficult work, we are not capable of tolerating a sense and a sense with our soul. And here we're talking about additional vessels. It's not that you absorb the public somehow and how they are. But you, too, what does it mean that you're suffering from the sorrow of the public? Because in their general descents, you begin to discover the vessels, and through these vessels you advance. Relative to what is today, you can multiply it by billions more, that's how much greater it is.
Reader: Let’s share our impressions from the lesson and what can we take to implement in the Ten. Then, let's go to the next part of the lesson and before that, let's sing a song!
Song: (01:29:05)