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

Daily Lesson (Morning) March 5, 2025.

Part 2: RABASH, 287. Turning His Ear from Hearing Torah

Reader: We are studying from the writings of Rabash, volume 3, article 287, “Turning His Ear from Hearing Torah”.

RABASH, 287. Turning His Ear from Hearing Torah

Reading: (00:24) Rabbi Hanina Bar Papa said, ‘Anyone who turns his ear from hearing Torah, his prayer becomes loathsome, as was said, ‘He who turns his ear from hearing Torah, his prayer, too, is abomination’’” (Midrash Rabbah, Haazinu).

We should ask, 1) What is the meaning of “turning his ear”? Why did he not simply say that he did not listen to the Torah, since the word “turning” implies that all we need is to listen, and we do not need to learn Torah, for by listening alone, we do our duty. 2) Why would his prayer become abomination? Can the whole world be learning Torah, and one who is not among the learners of Torah, his prayer will be abomination? 3) It is known that there is the issue of necessity and luxury. A prayer is regarded as necessity, and Torah is regarded as luxury. Therefore, the Torah is called “a gift,” since a gift pertains only to luxuries. Accordingly, we should understand why if he turns his ear from hearing luxuries, the necessity becomes abomination, too.

We should interpret that it is known that the purpose of creation is to do good to His creations. To be able to receive the Creator’s gift abundantly and for the gift to be complete, without any feeling of unpleasantness, He has given us the work of choice and that our aim will be for the sake of the Creator. Otherwise, a person is placed under the governance of the Tzimtzum [restriction], meaning he does not feel that there is pleasure in the work of the Creator.

All this was so that by this, man will come to a state where he can receive all the King’s gifts and there will not be the quality of “bread of shame” in it, but only the completeness of the purpose.

It follows that the whole matter of work and prayer is that he can receive the luxuries that the Creator has for man. This is called Torah, which is a gift, regarded as luxuries. Hence, one who turns his ear, it means that he does not prepare himself to hear the Torah, since the Torah is a gift he should receive from the King.

This is the meaning of “We will do and we will hear.” “We will do” alone is not enough, for “We will hear” is also required. That is, through “We will do,” he will be rewarded with the quality of “We will hear,” for the purpose of creation was on the quality of “We will hear.” Hence, one who turns his ear from hearing Torah, his purpose is not needed; this is why it is loathsome, since anything that is unneeded becomes loathsome. 

M. Laitman: Again? Read it again. 

Reader: Okay. Again, Article 287.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:38) Why is the Torah a gift and not a necessity, if that is a condition for the connection with the Creator? To keep a permanent connection, why is it a gift? 

M. Laitman: We always learn that Torah is a gift. Also, according to our nature, we don't demand the Torah, we have no demand for it. Rather, once the Creator gave it, after several actions that came out of that, we begin to attain the Torah and attain that it's worthwhile to ask for the Torah. 

Student: So, that means that, to begin with, it was a gift and then a person himself asks for it? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And what does it mean “to hear the Torah”? 

M. Laitman: To hear what the Torah is speaking about. This is according to equivalence. As much as our vessel will be in equivalence with the Creator, we will hear.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:32) How can a person reach a need to hear the Torah specifically in the Ten between his friends? How does he reach that need?

M. Laitman: Specifically in the Ten, a person can come to the need to hear the Torah, because only in the Ten can he reach that need. In terms of the internality of the matter, of what the Torah is telling us about. 

Student: How can we in the Ten help one another to reach the importance of the internality of this matter? 

M. Laitman: If you come to be as one man in one heart, then you feel the internality. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:55) When a person hears the Torah, what does he hear? 

M. Laitman: The voice of the Creator. 

Student: What about His voice? What does He tell him? Where does He aim? And what does he hear there in His voice? 

M. Laitman: What the Creator says to his soul. 

Student: That's to hear the Torah. And what makes a person not listen to the Torah? Like he said - turn his ear from it. 

M. Laitman: But from the beginning, we need to demand to hear the Torah.

Student: Why won't a person hear the Torah? Why won't he want to hear it? Why will he turn his ear from hearing the Torah, if the Creator is talking to him, directing him. It sounds like a good thing. 

M. Laitman: Why is it good? 

Student: It's not good? Why is it not good? 

M. Laitman: Because his vessels are opposite to it.

Student: Can we have a connection with the Creator only through prayer? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And the Torah, he writes about, he calls it “luxuries”. Why is the Torah a luxury? Because without the Torah, how can he even do anything? 

M. Laitman: What is he trying to do? 

Student: To resemble the upper force. 

M. Laitman: He doesn't have a lack for it, a deficiency.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:55) You said that through the Torah you can hear the Creator's voice for his soul. How to do it so that the soul won't fall asleep? That there will be an awakening to the voice of the Creator?

M. Laitman: I don't know. We have to be concerned about it, that this desire to reveal the Creator will constantly be awakened inside of us. That's it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:50) There is the Torah of the masses. They say, everything is for the best, thank God. That God loves me, I love Him. And there is engaging in the Torah. As if what we do, that we went through the Torah, as much as possible, the more of the greatness of the Creator is revealed, and the lowliness of you. You discover your evil inclination, and you go through unpleasant states, that you know on one hand what the truth is, and you have to be happy that the Creator does good to his created beings. On the other hand, you see the lowliness of your ego, and your will to receive is also revealed. And from this state, you also go through states that you don't want to hear the Torah, better not to hear, and to give a rest to your soul. Through our studies, the path of the Kabbalists, and through the friends, and through the teacher, you get the confidence that you can complete this. That the Torah will be the remedy for your evil inclination, that you'll be able to make the correction and reach a state of being in wholeness with the Creator. And constantly, there are falls on the path. What can we do as a society, as a Ten, to strengthen the faith that we are able to make this change in our nature and be more in wholeness with the Creator and not to fall.

M. Laitman: What do you propose? 

Student: I'm asking my teacher, from his experience and from his attainment, how we can rise and be in happiness, like we read in the previous article, and how to be in confidence that the goal is close to us, and be uplifted because there's work in the Torah. Every time we study, we're, on one hand, happy for the revelation, but feel lowliness from our state. So, I'm asking what we could add in our work to… 

M. Laitman: I don't know what to tell you. A person who's born, is born with a certain deficiency, and according to this deficiency that develops in him, he comes. 

Student: For instance, the feeling of shame, that bread of shame. It's like a critical point. There are people who have no shame, and there’re people who do have shame, and they feel that getting a gift from the Creator isn't a good thing. That they have to be in happiness, that they feel good, and to take it without… You constantly have to heal that shame by something changing in a person, that his attitude will change, his attention will change. What can we do that something will change in us? And what else can we add? More than that, I'm sure that everyone in this room has two states during today: in the lesson with friends with an open book - one kind of feeling, and in another two hours everybody is going to be at work, and they're in a second state that has nothing to do with this. This may be a note from the lesson, some memory, but it's not the same state. What can we do for it to get into our..

M. Laitman: Yes. That's what we want to combine, the Torah and the deficiency in us, but we're unable to do so. We're unable. 

Student: More than that, if I come to the lesson and remember the way I was yesterday, I'm embarrassed to even read what we're reading and to feel that I'm about to receive a gift that I don't deserve. 

M. Laitman: Yes.