The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) December 14, 2024
Part: 1 Baal HaSulam. The Meaning of Conception and Birth
Reader: Hello, we are reading in the writings of our Baal HaSulam. In Hebrew it's page 52, the article called “The Meaning of Conception and Birth”. You can find the study materials in our websites, in Sviva Tova, also in the Galaxy System. You can also send us questions there, live questions. Anyone asking a question here, in the study hall, is asked, and received the admission to ask, is asked to stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth and speak loud and clear. We will ask the friends who ask questions, to ask short and focused questions, in order to allow all the friends to ask. So, we are in the writings of Baal HaSulam, in Hebrew, page 52, the article, “The Meaning of Conception and Birth”. We are reading in the subtitle “That Soul Is the Possession of Adam HaRishon”.
That Soul Is the Possession of Adam HaRishon
Reading: (0:55) I have already explained above, in item 2, that the worlds are attained in two ways - from above downward and from below upward. First, one attains from above downward, the cascading down of the soul, and then from below upward, being the attainment itself.
The first progression is called Ibur [impregnation] because it is tantamount to a drop that gradually detaches from the father's brain and becomes impregnated in the mother until it emerges to the world. This is regarded as the last degree from above downward, meaning taking into consideration the cause of the newborn. After all, until then it was still connected in some part to its father and mother, meaning the cause, and as it came into the world it became independent, and this is the order from above downward.
And the reason for all this is that His thought is unique.
Hence, all incidents are the same, and the general is similar to the particular.
M. Laitman: Are there any questions? You want to read it again? Okay.
That Soul Is the Possession of Adam HaRishon
Re-Reading: (02:55) I have already explained above, in item 2, that the worlds are attained in two ways - from above downward and from below upward. First, one attains from above downward, the cascading down of the soul, and then from below upward, being the attainment itself.
The first progression is called Ibur [impregnation] because it is tantamount to a drop that gradually detaches from the father's brain and becomes impregnated in the mother until it emerges to the world. This is regarded as the last degree from above downward, meaning taking into consideration the cause of the newborn. After all, until then it was still connected in some part to its father and mother, meaning the cause, and as it came into the world it became independent, and this is the order from above downward.
And the reason for all this is that His thought is unique.
Hence, all incidents are the same, and the general is similar to the particular.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (04:50) On the one hand, he says that Ibur [impregnation], is our first degree that we need to enter in spirituality, but he says it is considered the last degree from above, downward. What does that mean? On the one hand, this is the first degree for us, but it is regarded as the last degree. How do I combine the two?
M. Laitman: We will see. I don't know.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (05:25) He writes about two ways here. First, we attain from above, downward, cascading down of the soul, and then, from below upward, which is the attainment itself. So, there is the matter that he attains the cascading down from above, downward, because we've learned that we start our attainment from below, upward. So, what is the connection between these two ways?
M. Laitman: I don't see an explanation here, only a fact. So, let's read on and see.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:16) In the end, he says that the reason for all this is that His thought is unique, hence all incidents are the same, and the general is similar to the particular. What does it mean that His thought is unique, and all incidents are the same, and the general is similar to the particular?
M. Laitman: That too is a question. When all cases are equal, you can somehow say in our mind, but everything resembles the individual, meaning that altogether the development of the souls resembles the path that each and every individual soul goes through. We'll see.
Reader: We are on, in Hebrew page 53, continuing with Conception and Growth of a Body as a Soul.
Conception and Growth of a Body as a Soul
Reading (twice): (8:40) From the moment of one's birth, when one is at the farthest point, begins the return to his return to attainment from below upward. This is called the “law of development”, which follows the same exact ways and inlets that descended from above downward.
Kabbalists attain it, but to corporeal eyes they seem as ordinary states - slow, gradual - until one's level grows and becomes like one's father and mother. At that time, one is regarded as having attained all the degrees from below upward, meaning a complete degree.
M. Laitman: Questions? None. Go ahead.
Item 4. From Above Downward and From Below Upward
The growth testifies to the conception
Reading: (09:50) And since the two progressions, from above downward and from below upward, are as similar as two drops in a pond, we can understand the progression from above downward by observing the progression from below upward, which is the second progression of the development, namely the growth.
You find that there are four states in the four worlds, ABYA, beginning with Assiya, such as when examining the progression of the growth of a fruit from the planting to its complete ripening.
Before the signs of fruition appear in it. These are all the laws of the states in the fruit. This is the world of Assiya.
From the time when you can eat it and be satiated, although it is still tasteless. This is Yetzirah.
From the time when some flavor can be detected in it. This is Beria
From the time when its full flavor and beauty appear, and this is Atzilut. This order is from below upward.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:49) It's not clear. If, let's say, someone is in the world of Assiya, what does it then mean from below upward and from above downward? Because, he writes it's like two drops of water. Towards which discernment?
M. Laitman: On the levels of the worlds.
Student: But he writes, for example, “one - before the signs of fruition or ripening appear in it. These are the laws of the states in the fruit”. So, there, there is the greatest revelation then?
M. Laitman: I didn’t understand.
Student: There you have the most light?
M. Laitman: Where is “there”?
Student: In the world of Assiya.
M. Laitman: In the world of Assiya, there's probably much more data, but in order to attain that, you need to rise higher.
Student: So, let's say, number four, he writes, “at the time when its full flavor and beauty are revealed”.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, where is there more attainment?
M. Laitman: Probably, in the world of Atzilut.
Student: This is true both from below upward, and also from above downward, that statement, that in the world of Atzilut there is the most attainment?
M. Laitman: Probably, the higher you rise, the more you attain the roots, that go all the way down.
Student: Is there a gap when we attain? Is there some gap, because we rise from below upward?
M. Laitman: I don't know. Let's read what's written.
Every Emanated and Born Comes in Two Ways
Reading: (13:48) The whole issue of from above downward and from below upward that was explained in the four worlds, ABYA, applies even to the smallest item in the worlds, meaning in every cause and consequence. A cause is the father, the root, the agent. A consequence means that it was operated and done by the cause. For this reason, it is regarded as an offspring, a branch, or an extension and cause.
The meaning of these two progressions is understood in the particular just as in the general. From above downward is a way of separating the cause from its consequence until it emerges and becomes an authority on its own. And from below upward is the law of development that awakens it to grow from below upward until it attains its cause. That is, it becomes completely equal to it.
As we have explained above, the corporeal father and offspring that comes from the father’s brain to the birth is the time of the ascent from below upward. You should discern likewise in all four types: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking.
As it is in the emanation of the elements of spirituality, so it is in all the worlds. It is so because from Ehad [one/unique] emerges the Yechida [also unique], and all the ways that that Yechida received necessitate all the subsequent successions, both in the general and in the particular.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:20) I would like to ask about the principle, not the details, because there are many details here. The created being enters into some annulment and then into some sort of Ibur [impregnation] towards the upper one. And then according to what I understand, he discovers the entire cascading from wholeness to lack of wholeness, what we call “from above downwards”. And then it is considered that he is born and he starts to perform actions by himself and to go through things, but he goes from lack of wholeness to wholeness. So, why is it considered the same?
M. Laitman: Of course, there is a difference if it's from below upwards or from above downwards, but he wants to emphasize that it's the same levels, and the only thing that's added in the ascent of the created beings is his attainment.
Student: How are these the same degrees if the cascading from above downwards comes from wholeness to separation, and we rise from below upwards from separation to unity? So, why are these considered the same degrees?
M. Laitman: Because the degrees themselves were built from above downwards, and our attainment of them happens from below upwards.
Student: It's clear if we make a similar comparison or analogy, but what's important is the action. In our action, we aspire for unity, for unifying the whole of reality, and the Creator from above downwards made an action of separating reality. The action itself seems opposite.
M. Laitman: Opposite of what?
Student: Opposite of the Creator's action. But that's in order for us to understand, to attain the degrees, and how they work in their connection. Ultimately, we are interested in attaining the unity of the whole system.
Student: So the goal is to resemble the Creator, right?
M. Laitman: Let’s say so.
M. Laitman: If you just say: “let's say so”, that I don't get it. We need to... I mean, what is the goal of this whole progression?
M. Laitman: At the moment, it's unclear from here.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:40) From below upward, I understood this means from the particulars we come to the general, and the general is from above downward. Now, above, below, upward, it is said that here we have all the particular, all the options of the growth and development of the fruit in the worlds of BYA. So, the worlds of BYA is the way of the development of the vessel of bestowal of a person? The way he describes it with this comparison to the fruit, that it's tasteless, etc.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So these are the degrees of bestowal that they're created being rewarded with as he develops?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: But these are actually all the details, all the elements, and by that, he attains all the details in it, which are completely equal to the general, the way it occurred from above downward?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Latin 1, North 1): (20:46) In this excerpt and in the previous excerpt, it mentions Abba and Ima [father and mother], who are our father and mother in our spiritual birth?
M. Laitman: In the spiritual birth, it's two forces, that connect together and work together on each other. And that's it, and by that, the fetus is born and develops.
Student: Can we relate to Abba and Ima [father and mother] as the previous forces, and the newborn is the consequence?
M. Laitman: The consequence.
Question (Women Brasil 5): (21:34) At what point will we begin a return to wholeness from below upward?
M. Laitman: From discovering that we are below, and then we start rising up.
Student: What does it mean, we discover we're below?
M. Laitman: That we discover ourselves as far from the goal of creation, from the point we need to reach.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:16) He writes here, that the first progression is called Ibur [impregnation], because it is like a drop that gradually detaches from the father's brain and comes impregnated in the mother. This occurs from above. So, to our point, how do we know that this is actually happening? That now we need to start actions from below in order to apply this impregnation, realize it.
M. Laitman: According to the desire that becomes revealed in us.
Student: But this happens all the time. As far as I'm concerned, or in certain points that I'm being told about it, how do I recognize that this is now the time of Ibur [impregnation]?
M. Laitman: According to what you identify, that you wish to attain the reasons for which you exist.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:42) A person attains from below upward, to an extent, the fact that he is being held by something that was whole, complete, and he descended from that?
M. Laitman: No. That he doesn't attain, that he was above and he fell below, he doesn't have an attainment of that for now.
Student: So, in what actually does he detect when he comes down? Does he feel that there is a lack of wholeness when he begins his ascent? He feels that, right? Otherwise he...
M. Laitman: Likely, yes.
Student: So, how does he have this awareness? If he does not have a perception of the fact that he came down from a state of wholeness, or that he is being held by the whole, that he came down from that?
M. Laitman: He feels that he is in an incomplete state, he does not know what comes before or after, he does not know what is his goal in the future. It's all in front of him like something unclear.
Student: And the purpose of the ascent is finally to attain this quality of wholeness?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:36) Why a Kabbalist, in order to describe to us four stages of direct light, must first rise through the four phases of reflected light?
M. Laitman: Probably, in order to attain the four phases of direct light.
Student: Does this study describe that particular and general are equal.
M. Laitman: That’s what’s written.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:37) He says that from below and from above downward, it's by separating the consequence from the cause, and if it emerges it becomes the authority of its own. What is being an authority of its own?
M. Laitman: The lower one that attains, sees it as a certain special state.
Student: What does that mean?
M. Laitman: That it has to do with his position, his education.
Student: What does it mean that he is studying on its own? Doesn't he become even more dependent?
M. Laitman: No. There are two things here that are actually opposite to each other. On the one hand, he feels himself more free and independent, and on the other hand, he feels that he is more dependent on the upper one.
Student: What does it mean that he attains the full level of Abba and Ima [father and mother]? Does he have to perform the same actions as father and mother?
M. Laitman: He has to achieve the same degrees of Abba and Ima, and achieve these degrees together. He, as if connects them together.
Student: And he also will have offspring, children? He also does that same thing?
M. Laitman: I don't know. What we read is what we know.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:49) If the Creator is in absolute rest, how come we have above downward, and we have the worlds, Sefirot, Parzufim? There should be only the Creator.
M. Laitman: It only with respect to the created beings.
Student: Why do we speak from the above downwards and from the below upwards? Why do we have two definitions?
M. Laitman: I don't know.
Reader: (29:25) Before we continue, I want to remind you, those who have the permission to ask to stand up, hold the microphone like a baguette, and then ask in a short and focused way. So, we are in the title number 5, “Emulating Creation”.
5 Emulating Creation
The Birth of the Happy Humanity
Reading: (29:52) When looking at the seal of the work of creation, we find there the words, “Which God has created to do.” This means that the work of the Creator, which is set in the creation before us, is given to us in order to do and to add to it. Otherwise, the words “to do” would have been completely redundant and meaningless, and it would have to say, “For in it He rested from all His work which God has created.” So why were the words “to do” added here? It must be that this verse teaches us that the full extent of the work that the Creator has left in creation is in the exact measure, no more and no less, but the extent that enables us to perform its development and completion by ourselves.
In truth, our entire development in creation is but emulation of it. All the flavors and beauty of colors that we innovate and devise are but emulation of the tasteful colors that we find in flowers. And so is a carpenter; from where does he know about making a four-legged table, if not by emulating the work of the Creator, who has made creations that stand on four legs? Or, from where would he know about combining two pieces of wood if not by emulating the organs of the body, which are joined together, so he went and built in the wood accordingly?
People observe and study the reality set before us in perfect reason and beauty. Afterward, when they understand it, they emulate it and do likewise. Subsequently, that example becomes a basis for another example, until man has created a handsome world full of inventions.
By looking at creation, planes were built with wings like birds. A radio was built to receive sound waves like the ears. In short, all of our successes are presented before us in creation and in reality as is, and all we need is to emulate it, and do.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:42) Maybe it's a weird question, but we exist in a time when people have discovered something called artificial intelligence, which is actually some sort of emulation of the way that, or mimicking the way a person thinks, trying to build an artificial brain. And indeed, when you look at this thing, you see that its structure in the basic idea is similar to the way the brain is built. As Baal HaSulam says here, researchers have looked at the way that the brain needs structure, and they built something artificial that mimics it. And indeed, they received some sort of result that can resemble a thought. At some point, will people manage to build a soul, something that will rise spiritually? Is there such a thing?
M. Laitman: No. I'm certain that even the brain, they're trying to resemble, to make something similar, they won't be able to build. And the soul is a completely different level of creation. It's a part of God above.
Student: So, if I take what Baal HaSulam wrote here, people can emulate creation up to a certain point, not all the way.
M. Laitman: Yes, that's what it seems.
Student: Can I ask another question? What is that point? Up to what point can we emulate it?
M. Laitman: To the point of the beginning of creation. We can't connect to what took place before.
Student: What is this point of the beginning of creation? What is there that is so special?
M. Laitman: That this is the thought of creation, which is the beginning of creation. And the created being has no way to attain anything before that.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:24) The carpenter builds a table by mimicking nature, which is complete. We build ourselves to the level of Adam from broken states, we build ourselves from a broken state, it's a bit different. Why does he call it “mimicking” or “emulation”?
M. Laitman: It's possible that we, coming from the broken substance, we can attain the corruptions and then build, each time, something more complete.
Student: What is our doing in this process of emulation? We discover broken states, and there is an expression. Is there any expression of ours, a manifestation of ours in this process, something we do?
M. Laitman: Our own expression. If we achieve the broken states, then, correspondingly, we imagine the complete states.
Student: And we seemingly need to depict ourselves the way it appeared, the way it was. Now, a question: he described the ascent on the worlds Assiyah, Beria, Yetzirah, and Atzilut. Now, these four worlds, the ascent, can we call it one degree of correction? I mean, an Atzilut is the end of this degree?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, the ascent is done from a state that is a bit whole to more whole, more whole, and more whole, or every ascent is from a greater and greater shattering?
M. Laitman: No. Any step includes within it both its broken state and its complete state.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:54) Why do we actually need to nullify to discover all these states? What's special about annulment?
M. Laitman: That you want that the nature in which you were created, sorry, the nature that created you will work on you, and you will be in its hands.
Student: We also talked about it in the lesson preparation, how do we implement annulment in the Ten? What is it for us?
M. Laitman: It's that each one annuls himself towards the Ten.
Student: What do I need to nullify about myself? You said, I have to take my nature and take it off completely. What does it mean to nullify my nature? How do I practically in the Ten or on a day to day, how do I do that? What does it mean to nullify your nature?
M. Laitman: Your will to receive, your ego, everything that you can depict yourself as who you are. You want to annul, to cancel these things, so that the Creator will seemingly be compelled to build you with a new nature, a different nature.
Student: When I nullify the ego, do I essentially allow the friends to let me build the higher nature, the nature of bestowal and love? That's, basically, how I let the friends work on me through…, the Creator working on me through the friends, through the annulment?
M. Laitman: Yes, there is something to that.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:08) If a person goes on a certain course and he gets to a certain point and he goes backwards the same way, he will get to where he got from. He gives here an example of a carpenter who looks at nature and builds a table or looking at a bird and building a plane. He also says, there is moving from above downwards through observation. I'm trying to understand, what should we observe, what should we look at in order to understand how to grow. There is also a question, why is there a kind of forgetfulness, a kind of a feeling that a person is on his own without any memory of what states led him. It's like he has no way to decide how to rebuild himself. What should he observe?
M. Laitman: A person should look at how nature created him. That's it, it's enough for him if he observes that.
Student: There is knowledge about how a person is born in a corporeal way, where he comes out of, what more or less the processes that take place there. But how does it help the person compress himself and go back to where he came from? That's not going to work. So, something else needs to happen for him to ascend. How can he understand what built him, let's say? I'm not talking about a bodily situation, a state of consciousness, emotional state, or spiritual state. How does he know what built him, what led him to that state? It's hidden from the person. If it was revealed, he would already be there.
M. Laitman: He'll receive, gradually. He'll receive the mind and emotion, and he'll be able to depict to himself correctly the previous degree.
Student: There are basically two players here in this story. There's one who planned the path and created all the stages and brought man to where he is and also built his path forward, so there's an understanding of the whole process. And there's someone who's in the dark, in concealment, doesn't know how to move on this track. So, the responsibility over man's development is not man himself. It's like a child, there are parents that educate him, and feed him, and bring him up. Another responsibility for a factor without which the person doesn't develop. The upper one has a responsibility to develop him as well.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, how do you start a process so there's a natural, healthy state of development? What kind of good development can we induce?
M. Laitman: The fact that a person wants to attain his root, that from birth he has some deficiency for that. Bit by bit this deficiency grows and develops within the person until he truly begins to attain what is going on.
Student: Where does the upper one work?
M. Laitman: The upper one works behind the person who doesn't discover anything from his past.
Student: How will he discover the upper one?
M. Laitman: Bit by bit the upper one prepares a person for the attainment of the upper one.
Student: Like the developing man has to bring the deficiency, the lack?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:29) That which the Creator created we must do. To do is first a place that we have to detect?
M. Laitman: We will see. We just read the first sentence.
Student: We read the following path of creation, we read that. He said that all that the Creator created in creation is precisely, no more and no less, according to the measure that we ourselves can bring its completion and development. Meaning, that the Creator also created a flawed place.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What is it that we need to do? Are we completing creation?
M. Laitman: No, from where can we complete it? When we begin to search for our root and connect with it and subjugate ourselves before it, towards it, and then in such a way we can develop by it and attain all of our other degrees from below upwards.
Student: This means we're doing something.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:00) It says here “emulation of creation” and he gives here some examples, the colors, tasteful colors we find in flowers or the interconnected trees, or the organs of the body, different examples. I wanted to ask this, when a Kabbalist looks at creation, what does he feel?
M. Laitman: Connection. The connection that exists between all the parts of creation.
Student: What about the root?
M. Laitman: The root, he only has a question with respect to the root. How do we attain it? How can we be directed towards it?
Student: What does he learn from this connection between all parts of creation?
M. Laitman: That there is a single cause for everything.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:16) This example from Baal HaSulam with the table and the four-legged animals, and the plane, and the birds, and I think it's an amazing example he doesn't write any other place. But, if I understand correctly in Baal HaSulam’s explanation, he tries to tell us that we need to emulate the Creator, is that correct?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Okay, so my question is that when we look at our world, it's the world of outcomes, the world of branches, we see the outcomes of creation, not the root.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, what does he mean when he says we have to emulate the Creator from our world? How are we supposed to do that?
M. Laitman: The Creator has prepared in our nature a desire to connect with partners, spouses, and from that we give birth to the next generation. I can't attain more than that.
Student: The only example for something whole for us in our world is the teacher, the Rav, and maybe the books. We don't really have an example for something spiritual or something whole that we can follow.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Is that correct? It's, basically, like the only map we have, to look at the Creator and try to emulate, to look at the books and try to see what Kabbalists write to us.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: But in our world, at least in our corporeal eyes, there's no example for something godly. It may be hidden behind all the connections in creation, but we have no way to see it or understand it.
M. Laitman: No, we don't.
Student: So, what's our example then? What is the flying animal from which we can build a plane or some other example? So, what's our example? What are we supposed to take an example from in order to reveal the Creator and look for the whole or this emulation he talks about?
M. Laitman: This emulation, it only evokes us to search for higher degrees and connect with them and adhere to them. That's the only thing we can say.
Student: So, the Creator left us with such a reality with many interesting links, so that we will think there's something behind the scenes and begin to look for Him, something like that?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:50) To continue the friend. I see everything through the prism of my ego, including the friends in the group, the books. So, my emulation is to do the opposite to what I see. Is that too an emulation? Is that what it means?
M. Laitman: Yes. Well, for example?
Student: I look at the friends, my ego rules them out, and there was always advice to do the opposite of my ego. So, I now know a direction towards bestowal by something opposite from me. So, is that also considered what he means by emulation of what's around me? Or is it the opposite?
Student: It's the opposite.
Student: So, it's not the emulation he writes about?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: So, I don't know what this emulation is, like the friend asked.
M. Laitman: Okay.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:60) I want to ask, if our work of correction resembles putting together a puzzle, in a puzzle, every piece comes from the whole, there's nothing redundant or missing. If something's missing, we can't put together the puzzle. If we teach kids, then a child looks at a complete picture, and then he knows, what piece after what piece he can assemble. For us, we don't have the example of what is our corrected state, but we do have a desire, and we have records from the corrected state. So, what does the Creator see? What does the Creator do? He keeps sending us states, it's like pieces of the puzzle, and we're told: “assemble it, put this piece in the right place”. If you succeed, you get another piece. And so, piece by piece, we correct our soul. Is that correct?
M. Laitman: There are many more things you could ask about here, but let's say that it is correct.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:42) The first time I read Baal HaSulam, I really felt that I wish to attain something he attained, or where he wrote it from, even though I didn't understand anything. But Baal HaSulam has a special great desire, and I don't have anything that even comes close to his desire. So, how can I take an example from him or resemble him or the Kabbalists?
M. Laitman: In whatever you can resemble, you can resemble.
Student: Because I see it's a different process, what I have to go through and what the Kabbalists. Another question is, what example is there in my friends that can give me that inspiration I get from the Kabbalists? What example can I take from them and emulate?
M. Laitman: I don't know, but look at the way they behave or succeed in something, and you will see how much more you can be envious of them and learn from them.
Student: What do I need to do to hasten it, to see different unique forms of bestowal in them?
M. Laitman: Get closer, and you'll see.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:20) The process from above downwards, if I understand correctly, is always revelations of shattering and restriction?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Because in our world, we're all the results of the shattering. Now, with respect to the upper one, when the process begins from above downwards, what is my role - to agree or disagree?
M. Laitman: Yes, that too.
Student: There are many states where I disagree, like the complaints of who and what.
M. Laitman: What can you do about it?
Student: So, what do I do? Just overcome and agree, because the state of the shattering is not so pleasant.
M. Laitman: Okay, but you can see what you disagree with.
Student: Okay, that's with respect to the upper one, with respect to the friends?
M. Laitman: Also with respect to the friends. What is the difference?
Student: Meaning, I agree that I see them as broken, because I'm broken. I discovered that I'm broken.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, what's next? There's still no working above reason here, building the intention.
M. Laitman: Why not?
Student: Because I don't have the force of bestowal yet. I just discovered a broken state. I need to somehow restrict it in order to feel that point of zero, where the light can come in and then build the intention. So what's here? I'm not talking about corporeal actions, that's clear, but what's inside, a prayer? What?
M. Laitman: A prayer, that's for sure.
Student: Prayer for what? For the greatness of the friends? For the greater force of annulment?
M. Laitman: The greatness of friends, the greatness of the Creator.
Student: When does the state of intentions begin? After a person restricts or reveals all of the evil inclination in its full depth, and then restricts it?
M. Laitman: No, beforehand.
Student: Before it finishes the state of the restriction?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, I have a small part of the desire where I discovered who I am there, and with God's help I restricted it, and in there light can cloth, and I can do something about the intentions. Is that how it is?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (59:52) The next degree of all of us, it's always darkness, we don't know what's there, we're not moving towards something clear to us.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And we said the Creator arranged states, we called them records that unfold. How do I, we, how do we translate correctly what the Creator sends us. There's a certain state now. How do I make a spiritual correction to what I see, feel, hear in the Ten, and don't relate to it like, okay, here is some corporeal problem I need to solve. How do I find the spiritual key to the unfolding Reshimot [record]?
M. Laitman: We learned that many times. All of the states that I go through, I can say, if they're close or far from the Creator, that's it. Accordingly, I relate to them.
Student: I can't really understand. We're in a Ten, in a Ten, ultimately, there are many states of connection between us, but there's also many corporeal states that friends go through.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How do I know, or we know, to take what's happening here and turn that into, well, say, let's see the record here, let's solve it, realize it. What does it mean to do it correctly? What's the key? How to approach it?
M. Laitman: Spiritual means, that we are connected together, and all of us are like one Adam, one man, who feels all of our internality as his life, and this is what we need to reach.
Student: I'm not sure how to ask it, it's not simple to try and feel that internality you talked about. It appears as a kind of very intensive inner work that we should all do together. That's the issue here, the togetherness.
M. Laitman: With the Creator.
Student: With the Creator, too. So, what can help us manage to do it more, let's say? Let's not jump too far, we're on a certain degree today, so let's say one millimeter forward.
M. Laitman: Prayer. Prayer.
Student: I'll ask this, we hear about prayer ten times a lesson and maybe more, and we really try to realize it. Why do I internally have a disregard towards prayer? Why can't I put into my mind that it's the only solution and the only thing I need to work with? Or, what is this mind lock that doesn't allow me to do it?
M. Laitman: Because a prayer means that you subjugate yourself before the Upper One. That's it, you have nothing else to do.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:20) The question about the conception, is the conception on behalf of the Upper One, it's the building of the degrees from above downwards?
M. Laitman: Ibur [impregnation] is the impregnation of the souls, yes.
Student: So, it's the building of the states from below upwards, and on our part, the building of the steps from above downwards, and for us the impregnation is to rise up the levels, the degrees?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:05) About the emulation of creation, I heard you said before, that when a Kabbalist looks at nature, he sees the connection between all things. What can we learn from that connection, about the connection we need to build between us and the Ten?
M. Laitman: We need to build between us connections where each one completes the other, so that all of us reach the complete complementation, this is the correction of Adam HaRishon.
Student: Where will the root, the one, the single root will be felt then?
M. Laitman: In that, the single root will be felt.
Student: Where?
M. Laitman: In that we connect together into a single structure called “the soul of Adam HaRishon”, and inside of it we feel this one root, which is operating the system.
Student: It activates us too?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How to feel it?
M. Laitman: To feel it, that's already something else. I need to be as His partner, in order for me to feel Him, what He does, what He intends for, what He plans. These are already not inside of me, it's in Him, or in His connection to me.
Student: What determines my ability to be his partner?
M. Laitman: They say it's in the root of the soul.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:33) It's interesting, there are subheadings here, where, for instance, he writes “the birth of the happy humanity”.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And then he also gives corporeal examples, and if I look at the corporeal world, we can research it, and we have scientists who research and invent things, and then everyone uses it. Some understand and some build, but the vast majority only use it. Now, probably he wants to also hint at spiritual processes, that there are people who attain and explain, and someone has to build an example, and then everyone has to use it.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, if it's correct to follow that, then Baal HaSulam obtained everything at the root, explained to us how it all develops from above downwards. And now he says, essentially, if, according to the spiritual nature, you will do the same things that Kabbalists explain to us, then you will build a happy humanity. Now, he also gave us, we've learned recently, the writings of the last generation. And he writes things that need to be done there. And we say, no, it's still early. Why don't we want to try and do something towards that?
M. Laitman: Because it is against our nature.
Student: We lack faith? What do we lack?
M. Laitman: I don't even know what faith means.
Student: If it's humanity as a whole, we're all part of a whole, so if there's a part that already attained, then we have to do, that's what he writes.
M. Laitman: I don't know. We need to think more.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:00) About continuing the emulation of creation, he writes that the embryo has a mother and father, and then he writes that the impregnation is like the drop that detaches from the mind of the father. What happens in this process of impregnation that something detaches more and more? What is? When the embryo grows…
M. Laitman: It detaches from its root, from the father and mother.
Student: From the root of the pleasures that he attained there, the root of the fulfillments?
M. Laitman: The root that manages it.
Student: So, can we also look at the father and mother as examples? Almost like in this world, if we wish to emulate creation, then the mother and father want to have a child, they have a goal of starting a family together. So, they want to be together despite the differences and oppositeness. Between the mother and father, two opposites, and perhaps, there's something that can be emulated here. That even in the Ten, despite the differences between us, we want to grow something new between us. Can we look at it this way?
M. Laitman: Possibly.
Student: Can I ask him one more question? He writes that when the baby is born, sorry, when the embryo before it's born, it's still connected to some part of his mother and father. So, I assume that's the umbilical cord. So, I'm asking you, what part connects the embryo to mother and father? He also writes, that the flavors grow when he talks about from above, from below, upwards. I'm trying to see if there's a connection between the flavors that are gradually restricted in the embryo, and then he acquires a new flavor he doesn't have.
M. Laitman: Let's say so.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:07) In our search for the boundary of the mind, it seems like the Creator doesn't want us to succeed without Him, because our mind is limited in all our search. Well, it seems that the point we're somewhat missing is that He doesn't want us to succeed without Him.
M. Laitman: Okay, fine. You're right.
Question (Woman PT 38): (01:13:46) About emulating the complete state, sometimes we're given a taste of the complete next state, and then it's taken from us. Can we treat that state as a complete state as well?
M. Laitman: No, not yet.
Question (Japan): (01:14:29) We all want to accelerate the process to be like the Creator himself, how can we accelerate this?
M. Laitman: To be as close as possible to what the Creator wants of us ,and then, according to that, in that same force, He can bestow upon us, and we will advance. That's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:15:25) At the point that you cannot emulate, is this come of Atzilut, or the upper light itself expands? That only up to there can you emulate?
M. Laitman: Probably so, yes.
Student: So, why is Lishma [for her sake] a reward?
M. Laitman: It's a reward, you're right.
Reality and the Existence of Reality Deny One Another
Reading: (01:16:15) Reality—meaning reality in general, and all its parts that are created as creations in relation to that which belongs to their existence—we find that it is well set up, with every beauty and pleasantness, without any deficiency whatsoever. Truly, an enlightened world. But when we place opposite that the existence of this reality, meaning the manners by which these creations feed and sustain themselves, they are awry, disordered, tasteless, and very unrestrained. However, we have already explained about reality and the existence of reality in general in the essay “The Meaning of Unity,” and learn it from there.
M. Laitman: Go on.
5). Conclusion and Birth
Reading: (01:17:20) From all this you should know that the general is always equal to the particular, that the Creator in and of Himself does not feel the proliferation, as He is always in the singular authority, and you can conclude the benefit of the collective from that of the individual.
And as the existence and birth of the individual—which the Creator has set up by the force of nature—is tested from the moment of birth and emergence to the place that the Creator has prepared, which is called “this world.” It is considered that He has made certain that one will fall into the hands of loyal lovers who will tend, heal, and care for all of one’s needs in complete devotion and love.
The same is true of the collective. If it wishes to be born and emerge to the world corrected for the whole collective, it is necessary to see that this general child falls into the hands of loyal parents who will love it just as devotedly as would a father and a mother, meaning through the commandment of love of others. This is similar to the preparation for the giving of the Torah.
However, here we engage only in the human species and see how much of the pleasantness and good the work of the Creator has set up concerning one’s existence, to keep one until one is worthy of being called upon in the shape of a working human. And when we take the order of one’s own existence, how much of the loathed and terrible is in it—wherever one turns, one condemns, and one’s very existence is built on the ruin of one’s neighbor.
M. Laitman: Continue.
The Corrected and the Needy of Man’s Work
Which God Has Created to Do
Reader:6) (01:19:55) Know that the Creator needed the work of creation only to the extent that man was not given the strength to work there. Similar to digestion, the Creator created everything in such a way that the digestion of the food in our stomach happens without effort on our part.
However, from the point where one can work—as this is all the flavor and contentment of the Creator who wanted to enjoy His work, meaning to fashion creations that can add, delight, and create like Him, but has no wish whatsoever to cook our food which is on the stove for us without our awareness, since we can do this by ourselves.
This is similar to a teacher and a student where the whole intention of the teacher is to give the student the strength to be like him, and to teach other students, like him. Likewise, the Creator is pleased when His creations create and innovate like Him. Yet, our whole power to innovate and develop is not real innovation. Rather, it is a type of emulation. And the more the emulation matches the work of nature, to that extent is our level of development measured.
From this we know that we have the power to correct ourselves, the existence of reality, like nature’s pleasant example of reality. The proof of this is that had the Creator not worked His full Providence in that discernment, too, for “Is the Lord’s hand short?” Rather, it is necessary that in this place, which is our own correction, we are able to correct ourselves.
Song: (01:22:57)