Daily Lesson (Afternoon) July 12, 2024. 

Part 1: Rabash. Record 32. Man’s Greatness Is According to His Work.

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

Reader: Hello, we are reading from the writings of Rabash. We’ll be reading the article  Man’s Greatness Is According to His Work. You can find the material on kabbalahmedia.info and Sviva Tova. Again, we’ll be reading from the writings of Rabash, Article 32, Man’s Greatness Is According to His Work. We’ll begin.

Reading Article: (00:35) Man’s Greatness Is According to His Work.

It is written that Rabbi Yosi says, “It is not man’s place that honors him; it is rather man who honors his place, for we find that on Mount Sinai, as long as the Shechina [Divinity] was on it, the Torah said, ‘neither shall flocks or cattle graze before that mountain.’ When the Shechina departed from it, the Torah said, ‘When the ram's horn sounds a long blast, they shall come up the mountain.’ We also find concerning the Tent of Meeting in the desert that as long as it stood, the Torah said, ‘Send away from the camp every leper.’ When the curtain was rolled up, the leaking and the lepers were permitted therein” (Taanit 21b).

To understand this, we must interpret the meaning of “place,” meaning the Creator, as it is written, “Blessed is the Place.” Tzon [flock] comes from the word Yetzia [exit]. Bakar [cattle] comes from Mevaker [criticizing]. “Shall come up” means ascending in degree.

The explanation is that it is known that the reward is only according to the sorrow, meaning that a person cannot receive the gifts of the Creator before he adjusts his actions to be for the sake of the Creator.

It is known that upon the revelation of the light of the Creator, when the Creator shines to a person and gives him awakening in Torah and work, there is no room for choice because the pleasure forces a person to engage in that which gives him pleasure. For this reason, at that time there is no place for choice.

In such a state, he is not obligated to believe in the Creator to such an extent that he says that without faith he will not do this, since what affirms the matter is another cause, which is the pleasure. This is called Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], since it is not faith that causes this action, but the pleasure determines it for him and motivates him to work and increase his good deeds.

Hence, although the Creator has given him a great awakening for Torah and work, he cannot ascend in degrees of truth by this, since “he acquired truth,” meaning that the degree of truth must be acquired. Only by labor in acceptance of the burden of the kingdom of heaven voluntarily is one rewarded with climbing the degrees of truth, each time to a higher level. This is the meaning of “It is all according to the action.”

By this we can understand the words, “It is not man’s place that honors him.” That is, it is not for this, if a person has been rewarded with some awakening. It follows that the Creator honored him; by this a person becomes respected, since an awakening that comes from above will finally depart from him because he still lacks the qualification to be fit to receive for the sake of the Creator and not for his own pleasure.

“It is rather man who honors His place.” Specifically by this, when one makes an effort during the choice and wants to honor His place, meaning the Creator, only then does one become honored. That is, through his work, a person becomes a vehicle for the throne. However, it is not during an awakening from above, which is regarded as the Creator honoring the person.

He brings evidence from Mount Sinai, that as long as the Shechina was on it, “neither shall flocks or cattle graze before that mountain.” The exits, when a person exits the work, is because of his criticism of Providence. At that time he should make a choice on these states. During the awakening there is not ascent because he is not making any effort of his own, since now he is in an awakening from above, and he is not making any effort to ascend to states where he should make a choice.

This is why it is written, “When the ram's horn sounds a long blast,” meaning after the departure of the Shechina, “they shall come up the mountain.” Precisely after this there is a place for the “What,” meaning places where he could not endure the test and could not enter the Kedusha [holiness]. Now he has a place where he can overcome them because he can make a choice.

This clarifies the evidence from the Tent of Meeting, “When the curtain was rolled up, the leaking and the lepers were permitted therein.” RASHI interpreted “the curtain was rolled up,” that they were rolling along as they were traveling. A “leper” pertains to slander. In ethics, “slander” pertains to slandering Providence.

Also, in ethics, “leaking” is as they said, “a cemented cistern that does not lose a drop.” This means that as long as one has not completed the measure of labor that he must exert, as much as he may take upon himself the burden of Torah, he immediately forgets and turns astray again.

It follows that any drop of fear of heaven that he takes upon himself leaks off from him. But once he is rewarded with permanent faith, he is called “a cemented cistern that does not lose a drop.”

Man’s heart is called “a cistern.” Sud [lime] is from the word Yasad [established], as in “for so the King established.” (RASHI interprets it as Yesod [foundation], so he established and commanded.) When man’s heart is corrected with the foundation of faith, when all he wants is because “for so the King established,” the King of the world, at that time the heart is called “a cemented cistern that does not lose a drop” of fear of heaven.

It is called “a drop” because man was created from this drop, since “You are called ‘man’” pertains to one who has fear of heaven, as it is written, “Fear God and observe His commandments” (Berachot 6b).

Precisely when the curtain was rolled up, the leaking and lepers were permitted in there. This means that then they were given an opportunity, since precisely at the time of concealment there is room for work, and one can make a choice and take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven permanently to be rewarded with the quality of “a cemented cistern that does not lose a drop.”

It follows from all the above that only a person himself must work in order to make a choice. Afterward, the Creator gives him everything that was intended in creation, which is to do good to His creations.

Question (MAK 39): (11:36) How can we buy the degree of truth?

M. Laitman: By exertion. What we buy in spirituality is only through investing ourselves in studying and in reaching a feeling and a connection with the One who will be bestowing towards us. Only by that. All the wisdom of Kabbalah explains to us how we can approach the text and which type of relations we have with the Creator. 

Question (Kyiv): (12:30) It’s written here that you’re given an awakening from above, and you need to receive Malchut of heaven from your choice. Why can we not do it from an awakening from above, and  how do we do it correctly?

M. Laitman: First of all, you need to come closer to the Creator, and therefore it’s not happening straightaway, that’s the first thing. The second thing, what was the second question? 

Student: When you understand the awakening, how do we do the correct choice?

M. Laitman: For that we first need to open a book or the Siddur or something that can aim you to the Creator, because not just like that can you have thoughts that are directed in all different kinds of direction, in this way you will never achieve anything. Just like when you shoot a rifle, you aim, you know exactly how much you need to hit in order to get to where you want it to reach. Everything needs to be measured, and that’s why it takes time to get used to it, a habit. 

Student: This working incorrectly is what’s called “to buy?”

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, yes. It’s all included in our work.

Question (Turkiye 2): (14:38) How can one remove the leper from work?

M. Laitman: By scrutinizing which out of his desires are ready to be adhered with the Creator. His thoughts and desires need to be aimed to the Creator, and with them he reaches a connection with the Creator. 

Student: Don’t the desires and the thoughts come from the Creator?

M. Laitman: Of course, everything comes from the Creator, but when a person aims himself directly to the Creator in the right manner.

Question (Tbilisi): (16:08) There is a feeling of shame that the Creator is making such efforts for us and Rav is making efforts for us and we aren’t investing enough in everything that’s happening every day. We wait, maybe tomorrow or the next day we’ll do more. How do we raise the importance of this in the group and hold the world Kli in order to delight the Creator? 

M. Laitman: It’s a very uncomfortable state of feeling shame. There’s no need to be shy or to be ashamed. You need to try hard to do everything you have in your strength, only through this way.

Student: To give an example to the friends?

M. Laitman: Yes, sure.

Question (Women MAK 104): (17:08) All the good the Creator sends us we enjoy. How do we lose the desire to enjoy for ourselves and to enjoy bestowal?

M. Laitman: You don’t need to work with the will to receive for yourself. I didn’t understand that.

Student: We are always enjoying for ourselves when the Creator gives us something good. How can we lose this desire to enjoy for ourselves?

M. Laitman: Not just to lose, for this we need to work a lot in order to receive this desire, so you don’t work independently by yourself. Therefore, you need to feel how much this desire for yourself is lowering you and making you smaller, putting you in a state where you are very far from the Creator, and this level for yourself needs to be completely changed  towards the Creator, for the Creator. 

Question (Women MAK 19): (19:57) The question is, we all want to be together and be united in following the Rav. There’s also an understanding that there are many great friends that have already done a lot before us. How do we overcome this inner contradiction that the gratitude is felt and the sorrow?

M. Laitman: You need to understand that they all come from the Creator, all the contradictions, and they’re all mixed up in a way that you’ll be able to scrutinize each and every one of them, and to separate them, and to aim them in a good way, which means towards complete adhesion with the Creator. Try to do that, try to adhere with the Creator in your heart and soul. 

Student: Another question, truth acquired by our own self, how do we control ourselves and aim ourselves so that the wisdom of truth, this upper wisdom, will be passed through me and won’t be lost?

M. Laitman: If you want to value what you feel because you receive it from the Creator, and you want to correct it in order to thank Him, to be in gratitude to Him, to give Him joy, the answer will be correct and very sensitive; that you want with all your heart and soul to adhere to Him.

Question (Women MAK 56): (22:29) The question is as follows from the depth of the heart, I, as a woman, really want relinquish self-concern. My soul is crying to the Creator for this. I want to be free from self-concern, and as a woman I really want to care for others, for my Ten. What is this condition? How can we create such conditions for each other?

M. Laitman: To think about it and that’s it, there’s nothing else. Just depict to yourself that you love them as a very loved person. How then would you come near it, come closer to it? By no means do you want to be disconnected from Him.

Question (Women MAK 62): (23:54) You answered one of the friends that if you don’t succeed in adhering to the Creator, there are such moments and we shouldn’t be ashamed, but to add what we can today. When we don’t succeed in any case, we judge ourselves internally. I understand that in this judgment that the bad overcomes the good, so how do we not get stuck in this state? And here too, we need to not just make something out of it, but to come out of it, or is this a judgment meaning to do something?

M. Laitman: Ask from the Creator. Simply, straight away ask from the Creator when you just notice those qualities in you. Don’t forget them, don’t skip over them, straight away ask from the Creator to correct it.

Question (Petah Tikva 6): (25:04) In the third paragraph it’s written, The explanation is that it is known that the Creator is the light when it shines to a person. What does it mean that it is the place?

M. Laitman: The place is the place where all the souls are coming from. Everything we feel comes out of there,  this is called “the place.” The Creator is the place of the world and our place as well.

Student: What does it mean blessed is the place?

M. Laitman: That we bless it, that we come to a state where we reveal that it’s all good.

Student: And what is blessed is he?

M. Laitman: Blessed is he is when the Creator is feeling a place, a desire. Then this desire becomes in order to bestow, and then we respect this place and we bless this place and want to adhere to this place.

Question (Women Turkiye 7): (26:40) How does seeking for the Creator everywhere we look change our perception and our hearts?

M. Laitman: If we are in exertion to reveal the Creator, it’s not important where. It’s as if He’s in concealment. He’s hiding and we look for Him. Where is He? Maybe He’s behind that, maybe He’s behind this. Just like kids that play hide and seek. In this way we look for the Creator and we ask from Him that He will reveal Himself, and if He won’t, He can hide from us that we will forget about Him. First of all, we want to know that He exists, the Creator exists, not to forget that and to feel where can He be, in which places, in which actions? How can it be that we will be able to find Him and to catch Him, to receive Him in our vessels?    

Question (Women Moscow 6): (28:39) At the end of the article it’s written,” It follows from all the above that only a person himself must work in order to make a choice. Afterward, the Creator gives him everything that was intended in creation.” What’s the person doing on himself?

M. Laitman: The Creator gives the person a force of anti-egotism to come near to the Creator and even reach adhesion with the Creator. In this way, he achieves this new degree and the Creator is turned to him. Then the Creator gives him an even higher degree, and again the person turns to the Creator, asks to receive from Him a will to bestow and by this will to bestow to rise to the next degree. Then there will be a new revelation of the Creator. In this way, it turns out that the Creator is always developing in us an ego, step by step, and we ask from Him strength in order that these egoistic desires that are awakening in us won’t take us off the path, won’t throw us away, that we will advance. That each and every desire that we’ve been given will allow us to be closer to the Creator.

Question (Women MAK 36): (31:08) Yesterday I had a question that was bothering me, how to understand that a person bestows to the Creator and delights the Creator. Yesterday in the Ten we had a very strong connection. It was felt from distance and we wanted to embrace and hug the whole world, and there was joy to be a Kli that’s passing it on. How do we understand by that we are delighting the Creator? How do we feel this, where do we feel this?

M. Laitman: You need together as a choir to thank the Creator for giving you such  opportunities, and then you’ll feel His relations towards you.  

Question (Women German): (32:39) It’s written that a person lacks preparation to receive the kingdom of heaven. We are doing all sorts of actions in our preparation. What inner actions do we need to do in order to prepare for this correctly, and how do we do true preparation for receiving the kingdom of heaven? 

M. Laitman: If we connect together and want by our connection to include the Creator, that He will enter between us to the center of our circle, by that we come to adhesion with Him, and then He reveals Himself within us in our common heart, our common desire. 

Question (Women MAK 97): (33:54) How we can bless the Creator and bless the place? I don’t understand. How can I, this lowly animal, what right do I have to bless the Creator in His place?

M. Laitman: You bless the Creator, and you can thank Him for everything he does with you. He corrects you, He brings you near to Him. That’s what you need to do.

Question (Women Spain): (34:35) It’s written that we need to receive the light from above on ourselves. What do we need to do in working in connection with the Ten if the burden is on ourselves? 

M. Laitman: We need to work on the connection with whatever is being revealed to us from above, because this is the Creator’s desire, that we will come in adhesion with Him so we will be like Him. This is our work.

Question (Women Ukraine 2): (35:24) It’s written in the article that in the pleasure  there’s no choice to make efforts, and only through suffering or in a state of pressure, a person can choose to make efforts or not. My question is, do we need to agree to this uncomfortable and stressful state and to look for the happiness there, because in that state  I can give the efforts? Did I understand correctly?

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, so try to find those situations and change them into good. 

Student: What does it mean to change them to good?

M. Laitman: To understand that this is for your own good, for your own benefit. 

Student: By that force I get the strength. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Baden-W): (36:40) You said that we need to balance the degree. I want to understand, does it mean love of others? Can we understand what that means?

M. Laitman: Yes, you said it correctly.

Question (Women ITA): (37:07) How do we prepare our emotional state before perceiving the divine presence?

M. Laitman: We need to receive the burden of heaven with closed eyes, and then we receive strength that helps us, and then we can start to see things.

Question (Women MAK 25): (38:09) When we have an explanation with the friends in the Ten and we have these states, how do we create this connection with the Creator through what’s depicted to us? 

M. Laitman: Try to find it in our work, because everything we feel is coming from the Creator. 

Question (Women MAK 104): (38:46) You answered a question that we need to be like a sniper, to really calculate our aim. What does it mean to give a clear depiction to our desire, to what we’re aiming for?

M. Laitman: Yes, and to tie it to the Creator.

Student: I need to know ahead of time to what I’m yearning and what I want to attain and to aim for there?

M. Laitman: Otherwise how can we ask?

Question (Women MAK 45): (39:25) It turns out that the Creator awakens us, how we operate from our desire to bestowal, and it’s not written that it’s from our merit, so what can we add other than gratitude?

M. Laitman: I can’t hear you properly, repeat.

Student: When the Creator awakens us to bestowal, there is no merit here for us, so what can we add in the work other than gratitude?

M. Laitman: By that, that you want to feel Him. What does He want from you in order for you to have the strength to fulfill His desires?

Student: If I may ask again regarding the intention. Very often, before a certain action in the Ten, we say that we have an intention to connect, and it’s felt that it’s half the way. For what are we connecting, what do we have to add to the intention?

M. Laitman: The connection adds to us a mutual vessel that we can reveal the Creator even more so and quicker. 

Student: Intention for connection needs to increase our vessel of bestowal.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Rehovot 1): (41:06) A person is working with these two states, an awakening from below and awakening from above in order to reach adhesion with the Creator. 

M. Laitman: He can either work with one or with the other, he cannot work with both of them. 

Student: How can a person differentiate a type of awakening? What is there needing to be in order to have an awakening from above?

M. Laitman: He feels the awakening, we talk about feeling. 

Student: An awakening from below is due to the labor. Is there a difference between the efforts a person makes?

M. Laitman: No, no, no, no. You start to work and then you’ll see.

Question (Women MAK): (42:02) In the paragraph near the end it’s written that every drop of the fear of heaven is considered as gold. Is this a high connection with the Creator? How do we not lose it, how do we hold on to this state?

M. Laitman: Make your desire bigger. Amplify your desire, and then it will include and grasp everything from the Creator. 

Student: The desire for connection with Him?

M. Laitman: Yes. Take your desires in a way that everything that comes from the Creator you will receive it and accept it.

Student: To receive it we need a screen in order not to receive?

M. Laitman: No, no. Don’t invent it, you don’t need that.

Question (Women MAK 51): (43:04) Can you help to clarify this state and to understand what is the algorithm of this action, that there are states that you are really close to the Ten. All your thoughts are for the friends, to do for them, and sometimes there’s a feeling, wow, I’ve advanced! And immediately, you fall completely. It might not be expressed externally, but internally. You feel how you really fall, descend, and it’s felt deeper and deeper each time. How do we cope with these states, and if we need with these states to turn to the Creator, to talk to the Creator? The thing is that in these states you forget everything, and these states are bitter and bitter.  

M. Laitman: That’s correct, this is good. They made you angry on purpose so you will be even more sensitive to how the Creator is relating to you, what type of attitude He has towards you.

Question (Women MAK 26): (44:30) It’s written, the truth you’ll buy. Where is the desire to buy the truth? 

M. Laitman: Especially when you’re in the group, in connection with your friends, when you’re lacking the opportunity to grasp the Creator in these states. When you go through those states, scrutinize them and get to know them better. This is how we need to do it.

Student: This desire appears from the environment, that we connect between us? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: I have this argument, that the article is called Man’s Greatness Is According to His Work. Is this not talking about the environment?

M. Laitman: Yes, about the environment, everything the environment does.

Student: So to begin with, this step is that a person needs to take the first step.

M. Laitman: Yes. You think correctly. 

Question (Women MAK 43): (46:08) It turns out that the awakening from above, from the Creator, comes after our labor. 

M. Laitman: Yes, according to our exertion.

Student: So how do we not fall to the shells in these efforts?

M. Laitman: With the intention that you do it for the Creator.

Question (Women Moscow 8): (46:42) In the connection with the friends, we feel that we are as one, that we are really close and in joy, and there’s no feeling of myself. What do we add to this state?

M. Laitman: Greatness and gratitude to the Creator.

Question (Women Kyiv 7): (47:11) There’s a part in the article where it’s written that when the Shofar will be heard, they will be able to rise. Why is the departure of the Shechina the blowing of the Shofar? 

M. Laitman: I didn’t understand. 

Student: It’s written that when the Shechina departs the Shofar is sounded. How are these two things connected?

M. Laitman: Where was it written?

Student: In the very beginning of the article it’s written, when the Shechina departed from it, the Torah said: ‘When the ram's horn sounds a long blast, they shall come up the mountain.’

M. Laitman: A hole full of seed that doesn’t lose a drop. Is that what you want to ask about?

Student: Question not translated.

M. Laitman: That’s how it was in the time of receiving of Torah.

Student: How are these two things connected, the blowing of the horn and the Shechina departing?

M. Laitman: The Shofar symbolizes the end of adhesion, and then the Creator disappears.

Student: So every time the Shechina departs, it’s called that the Shofar, the ram’s horn, is being blown?

M. Laitman: Not only that. We will study that, there are many conditions.

Question (PT 6): (49:30) A person is made from his work, a vehicle for the throne. What does it mean that a person is made as a vehicle for the throne? 

M. Laitman: A person becomes a vessel to reveal the Creator, that a person himself becomes a vessel where the Creator is revealed.

Student: Why is it called Merkava, vehicle?

M. Laitman: Vehicle, how can I say it? It is the type of desires that are connected together, and they have one intention that ties them together, and by that the world exists.

Question (Lithuania 1): (50:47) It’s more or less clear how each prayer starts, with gratitude, but is praise an addition, or is it more than gratitude?

M. Laitman: No, no. We need to thank the Creator for everything He does for us. 

Student: There is no difference between gratitude and praise?

M. Laitman: Yes, there is a difference. It’s either you thank Him or you praise him. Praising is higher.

Student: And this is already the degree of bestowal?

M. Laitman: Yes, exactly.

Question (Women Spa): (52:00) How can we make an intention, a prayer in the Ten if we discover a state of Lo Lishma, not for her sake, in the Ten and we feel affected by the Lo Lishma? How can we nevertheless get to the prayer with the right intention in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: If this is what you reveal, you need to twist yourself to the direction of Lishma, in order to bestow all together, and by that to have the attitude towards the Creator for what He does for you. Then you will receive from Him correction and a new state.

Question (Women Ukraine 2): (53:12) What does it mean to bless the Creator? To thank is clear, but what does it mean to bless?

M. Laitman: We bless Him that He is taking care of us. I can understand that it’s not quite understood in the Russian language, but we thank Him.

Student: Is it praising?

M. Laitman: Yes, let it be this way.

Question (Women Moscow 8): (53:47) According to the article, it turns out that the person goes from pleasure of adhesion with the Creator to even greater pleasures. What’s the choice of a person?

M. Laitman: A person’s choice is to reveal the Creator, that from the start the Creator is concealed. Then you turn to Him in such a way that the Creator will want to correct the person and to feel him.

Question (Women Rehovot 1): (54:34) When the Creator increases the egoistic desires, how do we work with them correctly, internally? 

M. Laitman: Just like the way we study, that’s it. 

Student: How do we aim it so that we will really be able to aim it purposefully, and not fall to some egoistic desires?

M. Laitman: So I say again, it all depends on how, which way you talk.

Question (Women Piter): (55:39) What is Merkava, vehicle?

M. Laitman: Merkava, vehicle, it’s a structure.

Student: How does a person become a Merkava, a vehicle? It’s written that a person becomes a vehicle for the throne, what does that mean?

M. Laitman: A place where the Creator is revealed.

Question (Women MAK 19): (56:18) It’s difficult to phrase this, but I have a request. Can you give us a measurement, or some criteria?

M. Laitman: It is still too early.

Student: You’re talking about ten commandments that we need to keep. What are these ten commandments?

M. Laitman: I said, it is too early for you to talk about it. 

Question (MAK 39): (57:06) In truth, love embraces everything, and only by the heart we can feel it?

M. Laitman: Yes, but in order to reach this kind of state we need to exert a lot of strength and thought. However, when all of this is reached, there is no need for more scrutinies. 

Question (Women MAK 69): (57:55) When our desires grow, when the will to receive grows and inner anger grows, how do we work with this so that we don’t harm others, and to show this outwardly that this is happening inside? When this happens inside, this feeling, what do I do?

M. Laitman: To look at what your intentions are and turn them more and more like the Creator. This is our only mission.

Question (Women MAK 43): (58:47) Do I understand correctly that the desire to unite with the Creator is my egoistic desire, and the desire to work only for the sake of the Creator, that’s already Lishma, for His sake?

M. Laitman: Yes. I hug all of you and all the best for all of you until tomorrow.

Announcements: (59:16)

Song: (59:55)