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

Morning Lesson July 08, 2024.

Part 1 Baal HaSulam. The Last Generation, Part 2, Leaders of the Public.

Hello, we are reading in the writings of Baal HaSulam, from the writings of The Last Generation, we are in Part Two, the Leaders of the Generation, or Leaders of the Public. You can send your questions into kabbalahgroup.info and through your vote system.

Reader (00:24) The Leaders of the Public. For oneself, one may choose between expressionism and impressionism. However, the leaders are not permitted to lead the public in any other way but a positive and pragmatic one, meaning according to expressionism. This is because they cannot harm the public for their personal interest.

For example, they cannot instruct a certain faith to the public in order to understand their own impressionism, thus denying moral conduct and ethics from the public. If one cannot control oneself he had better resign and not harm the public with his ideals.

Reader: (01:39) Perception of the World. The world was created through consequential evolution, according to historic materialism and the dialectics of Hegel [Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), German philosopher] of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Indeed, it corresponds to the sensation of the Creator, from the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, up to prophecy, or to the knowledge of the Creator. Pleasure is the thesis, affliction is the antithesis, and the sensation outside one’s skin is the synthesis.

M. Laitman: Yes, what would you like to say?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:43) It is simply a beautiful example of what we read, how he closes in these perceptions. He explains the three axes, the development from the beginning of creation to its correction, and he bases it on two concepts, and he translates them. What they know as historic materialism is the development of regimes from a state where those who hold the means of production, that's classic Marxism, to those without means, and this is called the development of the regime throughout history. Marx says there's a different materialism, and he presents a different materialism, the development of the matter from the beginning of creation to its end. In dialectics, he talks about the expansion of the light that prepares the vessel for its role. That's what he explains in thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. First pleasure, you feel pleasure, then emptiness, and then the aspiration to find this pleasure again, or conversely, the expansion of the light and its departure brings the development of a person, but still vegetative, animate, and speaking until prophecy or revelation of the Creator. So, there's a plan of the Creator from the beginning of creation, and when He clothes it, He clothes it in the language of the time. He writes it as a note for himself, he uses the theory of purpose by Hegel, and he explains how the matter of creation develops from the beginning until the attainment of the Creator in the end.

Reader: (04:29) The Essence of Corruption and Correction Is in the Public Opinion. As private opinion determines one’s own gains and losses and brings one to the most successful business, so public opinion determines the policy and chooses the most successful. However, there is quantity and there is quality.

M. Laitman:(05:00) Next.

Reader: (05:03) Quantity Versus Quality. Until now, the qualitative [powerful] (who are the assertive) determined and made the views of the entire public, and therefore all the justice and morality. Religion was used to harm the majority, which are 80% of society.

The Majority is as Primitive as Prehistoric Man. The majority is as primitive as prehistoric man. This is so because they have not tried to utilize justice, religion and morality, which were used by others until today. However, of course, all these came to the present state only through great pains in the path of causality and dialectics. The majority paid no heed to it and at any rate cannot grasp it.

The Quickest Action is Religion. In order to activate public opinion anew in the majority in an effective manner, there is no quicker way than religion, the loathing of any measure of will to receive, and elevating the beauty of the will to bestow to a great extent. This must be done specifically by actions. Although the psychophysical are parallel, still, the physical precedes the psychic.

The Prodigies. The prodigy is a product of the generation. He has a strong tendency to bestow, and he does not need anything for himself.

As such, he has equivalence of form with the Creator and naturally cleaves to him. He extends wisdom and pleasure from him and bestows upon mankind.

They are divided into two kinds. Either they work consciously, meaning to bestow contentment upon their maker and hence bestow upon humankind. Or they work unconsciously, meaning they do not feel or know that they are in adhesion with the Creator. They adhere to him unconsciously and bestow only upon humanity. According to this basis, there is no progress to humanity except to instill the will to bestow in them and multiply the prodigies in the world.

Teleology, a science of purpose. Teleology is necessary in Kabbalah, according to the method of anthropocentricity, that the worlds were created for Israel, and they are the purpose. Moreover, the Creator consulted with the souls of the righteous. Their purpose is also brought in the prophecy: “And the whole earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.” There is no more specific purpose than that.

Maimonides takes after the method of dysteleology and says that the Creator has for creation other purposes besides the human species. It is hard for him to comprehend that the Creator created such a vast creation, with planetary systems, where our planet is like a grain of sand, and all this was only for the purpose of man's completeness.

Purpose is imperative for any mindful being, and one who works purposelessly is mindless. By His actions we know Him. He has created the world in still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. The speaking is the climax of creation since it feels others and bestows upon them. Atop them is the prophet, who feels the Creator and knows Him. This is perceived as pleasing to Him and as His purpose in the entire creation.

Hegel’s question is that necessarily, there are purposeless creatures in nature, like many things on our planet, and the countless planets that humankind does not use at all. The answer is according to the law that “The unknown does not conceal the known,” and that “The judge has only what his eyes see.” Perhaps there is still, vegetative, animate, and speaking on each planet, and on every planet, its purpose is the speaking.

It is likewise with the unknown. And how can that contradict the known and familiar in the way of prophecy? This is simple: It is pleasurable for the Creator to create an object that will be qualified for negotiation with Him and exchange of views, etc. There is also pleasure in having something that is not of the same kind, and we completely trust the prophecy.

Causality and Choice.

Causality and choice are a path of pain by which one repays unconsciously by dialectic laws. Within each being, the absence and existence of a being are concealed as long as the absence in it has not been revealed. When the antithesis develops and manifests, it destroys the thesis and brings in its place a more complete being than the first, as it contains the correction of the previous antithesis (since any absence precedes presence.) Hence, the second being is called “synthesis,” meaning it includes and is an upshot of both the presence and the absence, which preceded this new being.

Likewise, truth always follows and is perfected by the path of suffering, which is presence and absence, thesis and antithesis, and always yields truer syntheses until the appearance of the perfect syntheses. But what is perfection?

In historical materialism, the above-mentioned path of suffering is clarified only with relation to economic desires, where each thesis means just governance for its time, each antithesis means unjust division in the economy, and each synthesis is governance that settles the antithesis that has been revealed, and nothing more. For this reason, absence is concealed in it, as well. When the absence develops, it destroys that synthesis, too, and so forth until the just division manifests.

The Path of Torah. The path of Torah is placing fate in the hands of the oppressed. This accelerates the end to the extent that the oppressed watch over it. This is called “choice,” since now the choice is in the hands of the concerned parties. Thus, the path of pain is an objective act, the path of Torah is a subjective act, and fate is in the hands of the concerned parties.

The principle: bestowal upon others. The governance—a regime that mandates a minimum for life, and good deeds toward the standard of living of society. The purpose and the goal: adhesion with Him. In my opinion, this is the final synthesis where absence is no longer concealed.

Good Deeds and Mitzvot. Locke [John Locke (1632-1704), English philosopher] said that there is nothing in the mind that does not come in the senses first. In addition, Spinoza [Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), Jewish Dutch philosopher] said, “I do not want something because it is good, but it is good because I want it.” We must add to this that there is nothing in the senses that is not present in actions first.

Thus, the actions engender senses, and senses engender understanding. For example, it is impossible for the senses to take pleasure in bestowal before they actually bestow. Moreover, it is impossible to understand and perceive the great importance of bestowal before it is tasted in the senses.

Likewise, it is impossible to taste pleasure in adhesion before one performs many good deeds that can affect it, meaning by strict observance of this condition to bring Him contentment, meaning to delight in the contentment given to the Creator by performing the commandment. After one feels the great pleasure in the actions, it is possible to understand Him to the extent of that pleasure. And if... for eternal and perpetual pleasure from bringing contentment to Him, then he will be rewarded with knowing ...

As seen above, there are two modes in religion: 1) Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], which is pure utilitarianism, meaning aiming to establish morality for one’s own good. One is satisfied when acquiring this tendency. And there is a second tendency to religion, being a mental need to adhere to Him. This is called Lishma [for Her sake]. One can be rewarded with the above through actions, and from Lo Lishma one comes to Lishma.

Life's Direction. There are three views in books and in research: either ideas about how to attain adhesion with Him, or to acquire progress, called utilitarianism, or corporeal pleasure of the flesh, called Hedonism or Cyranism.

I wish the view of Hedonism were true. The trouble is that the pains are greater than the few sensual pleasures that one can delight in. Besides the flaw of the day of death, and the method of utilitarianism to bring progress to the world, there is a big question here: Who enjoys this complete progress … that I pay so heavily for with pains and torments?

It seems that only ideals whose tendency is man's happiness, thereby improving all the mental forces, impart one with respect in life and a good name after his death. Kant mocked this method of establishing a moral thesis on an egoistic tendency and instructed doing in order not to receive reward.

Modern science has chosen for itself utilitarianism, but only for the common good, meaning to bestow. This is also similar to “in order not to receive reward,” and who would want it? There is also the question: What will this progress bring to the generations for which I work with so much pain to give this?

At the very least, I have the right to know what is required of progress, and who will enjoy it. Who would be so gullible as to pay so heavily without knowing its effect? The whole trouble is that the pleasure is brief and the suffering, long.

Life's Purpose. From all the aforementioned, you will find that life’s direction is to attain adhesion with Him, strictly to benefit the Creator, or to reward the public with achieving adhesion with Him.

Two Enslavements in the World. There are two enslavements in the world, either enslavement to the Creator, or enslavement to His creatures. One of them is a must. Even a king and a president necessarily serve the people. Indeed, the taste of complete freedom is only to one who is enslaved to the Creator alone, and not to any being in the world. Enslavement is necessary, for reception is obscene; it is beastliness. And bestowal, the question is, “To whom?”

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:09) I want to ask, when we finish the writings of the last generation, the part two, to refresh the question again. What is the purpose of reading these texts? What do we need to do with it?

M. Laitman: Just to read, just to read and a little bit to think in this direction or that direction. The way to which they are leading us, not more than that. These are texts that he wrote for himself, in various states, that he was thinking perhaps that in the future he will reach that. I don't know. About all of these things, I didn't hear anything from Rabash. Truly. We didn't read it, we didn't study it.

Student: I'm asking, I get this feeling now that as if I'm walking hand in hand with Baal HaSulam. I'm strolling with him and he's pouring a huge amount of thoughts and things that there's a feeling that there's a great deal of scrutiny in everything that is said here. And it's not processed, like we're not doing anything with it, it's not enough.

M. Laitman: Yes, but nevertheless, apparently, if we reach Lishma, then we can understand better, feel more in advance in that way. This is what I can say.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:31) He speaks about how the Creator created such a huge creation, and only for one purpose, with all the planets and everything. It's man. Man can be a partner, as it's written in your book, The Magician. And I read about a programmer who invented an AI program, and he became such a good friend with this program, which knows him so intimately, all his needs, and everything that he spends hours with her. What would he do with her? It's a program, it lacks a corporeal body. It gives him all kinds of satisfactions in life. He describes all kinds of pleasures, including physical pleasures, that you can imagine, and he experiences it with this program, because it knows him so well. She, I mean, he speaks about her as a person. The question is, is it something that's going to get humanity stuck in place, because he wants to discover the Creator or advance a person, lives seemingly with himself, and outside of him there's someone who understands him more than any other person in the world, and that's it.

M. Laitman: I'm certain that if, as Baal HaSulam writes, humanity has a purpose in its evolution, then we shouldn't enter all kinds of such theories and be concerned about them. That will not happen. Our will to receive and what it can give us, prepare for us, reveal to us, is far greater than what this small primitive person can establish out of his poor brain.

Student: And that brings you to this excerpt that he wrote, that from the thesis and the antithesis, which he calls pleasure and suffering, a person comes out from outside his own skin. He calls it the synthesis. The purpose is to come out from outside one's own skin.

M. Laitman: I don't know. I don't think that we should get into it and speak about it, because we don't have a practical sense in it.

Student: It doesn't remind us what we learned. The purpose is to come out to the Creator, to the friends, not to remain within yourself.

M. Laitman: The purpose is to emerge to the will to bestow, and to be in the will to receive to the extent that you can build above it a will to bestow.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:59) I wish to continue the friend. In the same excerpt, he says that the Creator created a creature called the speaking, and the speaking gave the Creator the pleasure to create an object that can negotiate with Him, and exchange ideas, and so on and so forth. And so, there's a pleasure from a species that is not His own, and we trust the prophecy completely. The question is, what is the meaning of Baal HaSulam saying that we need to rely on prophecy, that is seemingly the power of love and bestowal?

M. Laitman: Yes,

Student: That's a frequency Baal HaSulam is aiming at all the time.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:54) If I understood this paragraph correctly, Maimonides doesn't follow prophecy. He says that the Creator created the creation not only for the sake of man, but for other things. And prophecy says, no, it's all for man. But I heard somewhere that they're not certain about Maimonides 100%. The question is, how can it be that Maimonides is quoted heavily by Baal HaSulam and other great people in certain things, and then something else, something so fundamental, essential, that they disagree with him?

M. Laitman: I don't want to decide.

Student: I understand that we can't really talk about it, but it's so bewildering.

M. Laitman: We will see along the way. There are things that we should see where we are and let them be. Leave them aside until we will reach them.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:15) A general question. Baal HaSulam says about religion repeatedly that it has to be the foundation for any regime that may come. And he talks about the religion of bestowal. We are speaking in our dissemination about a certain fundamental called connection and salvation to all the problems. Can we say that this is that religion Baal HaSulam is mentioning here, that we're using the same words?

M. Laitman: But it's in the same direction, yes.

Student: Is there a gap? Is there something missing in the word connection relative to the religion of bestowal?

M. Laitman: Well, it becomes clear along the way. If we will truly do it in the right way, in a complete way, we will see what else is missing. Okay? We'll go to the next part of the lesson.

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