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

Daily Morning Lesson August 26, 2026

Part 1: Rabash. What Is the Son of the Beloved and the Son of the Hated in the Work? Article No. 46, 1991

Reader: Hello friends, in the first part of the lesson we'll study a lesson from the Rav from October, 2002. The lesson is based on the article, "What Is the Son of the Beloved and the Son of the Hated in the Work?" The article is from Rabash. You can find it on kabbalahmedia.info. We'll read the article together in the Ten and we have thirty-three minutes.

Reading: (00:43) What Is the Son of the Beloved and the Son of the Hated in the Work?

Article No. 46, 1991

The Midrash says (presented in Baal HaTurim) about what is written, “If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other hated.” He says, “‘If a man has two wives’ is the Creator. ‘Loved’ are the idol-worshippers, to whom He shows His face, and ‘hated’ are Israel, from whom He hides His face.”

We should understand this, since it contradicts all the places that write that the Creator loves His people, Israel, as it is written (Malachi 1:2-3), “‘I loved you,’ says the Lord. But you say, ‘How did You love us?’ ‘Was not Esau Jacob's brother?’ declares the Lord. ‘Yet I loved Jacob and I hated Esau.’” Also, we say, “Who chooses Israel, His people, with love.”

We should interpret this in the work: It is known that in the work, we speak of everything within one body. For this reason we should interpret saying “two wives” to mean that they are in the same body. This means that there are two forces within man: 1) the desire to receive for one’s own benefit, 2) the desire to bestow, to do everything for the sake of the Creator.

Those two are called “two wives.” In other words, we should determine within man the quality of the “seventy nations of the world,” and the quality of “Israel.” We attribute the “nations of the world” to the will to receive for one’s own benefit, and we attribute “Israel” to the desire to bestow upon the Creator.

We should know that those two desires come from above, meaning that only the Creator gives them and it is not within man’s hands to take them by himself. Rather, the first force, called “will to receive for oneself,” comes to a person without any effort. As soon as one is born, he has this force. But the second force, the “desire to bestow,” does not come from above without labor. This means that first one must seek ways by which to obtain it, and only then does he receive from above the desire to bestow. However, it is not given without labor.

We should understand the reason that the desire to bestow is not given without labor, and the will to receive is given without labor. This is so because in order to achieve the purpose of creation, which is to do good to His creations, He had to create a creation that contains the will to receive pleasure, since without a desire, it is impossible to enjoy anything. Hence, the Creator placed within creation the desire to receive pleasure.

This means that if man did not have it when he was born, it would be impossible to be called “creature,” since this shows us the matter of creation “existence from absence,” meaning that a desire and need were created, where he wants to satisfy his need. For this reason, this desire comes immediately, without any effort. In other words, were it not for the will to receive, there would not be any development, so there would be anything in the world, since we learn everything only by the power of the will to receive, which pushes us to go forward. For this reason, this desire comes to us without any effort.

But concerning the desire to bestow, the Creator does not give it to us without any effort. That is, once we have creation and the Creator should give fulfillment to the creatures, He gives them what they demand and say that they need. At that time the Creator fills their lack. It therefore follows that all the effort that a person makes in Torah and Mitzvot is in order to obtain the lack for the desire to bestow. That is, as man understands that without a desire to receive pleasure, a person cannot live in the world, meaning that if a person sees that if he has nothing to give to his will to receive so it can enjoy, the person knows that he will not be able to exist in the world, since without vitality he is in conflict with the purpose of creation, to do good to His creations.

Likewise, a person must come to feel that unless he has the desire to bestow, by which he can achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, he also has no life or pleasure in this world. In other words, he sees that he has no satisfaction in life. For this reason, he wants to achieve wholeness, for there must be delight and pleasure in creation. However, without the desire to bestow, a person cannot achieve wholeness. This state is called “lack and need,” and when a person has such a lack, he receives from above, from the Creator, the second desire called “desire to bestow.”

For this reason, one should do all that he can in order to acquire a lack for the desire to bestow. However, one must know that although he wants to do everything in order to bestow, the body does not let him emerge from its governance, and this causes one descents and ascents. That is, once the will to receive prevails over the desire to bestow, meaning that the will to receive brings him desires and thoughts that it is correct, meaning that it gives him a greater taste for self-love, which means that the will to receive, which is the “nations of the world,” receives more flavor each time, so when it acquires more strength, it cancels the need for the desire to bestow.

Hence, all the labor that one has given in order to obtain the need for the desire to bestow departs from him, and the person agrees, during the descent, with the will to receive for oneself. However, afterward, the person recovers and begins once more to work and labor in order to obtain the need for the desire to bestow, and then the will to receive prevails once more. It follows that this is the cause of ascents and descents.

This situation continues until a person comes to a resolution that without His help, it is impossible to attain, not necessarily the actual desire to bestow, but even the need for the desire to bestow also ascends and descends to the point that several times he came to a state where he saw that he could not make any more efforts than he already has. Therefore, he wants to escape the work.

However, we should ask, Why did the Creator make it so there are ascents and descents? As said above, it is in order for man to need to move forward and not settle for little. For this reason, he receives a descent from above. In other words, a person is helped to advance by lowering him from his degree. This causes him to reflect and see what is required of him from above, and for which he was lowered from his degree.

This causes a person to pray to the Creator for help. The help that one receives from above is the preparation because of which he will obtain a soul, as it is written in The Zohar, that he is helped by “a holy soul.” It follows that both the ascents and the descents come from above. That is, the descents, too, help a person, and because of them he achieves the goal he should achieve.

By this we should interpret what The Zohar says (VaYishlach, Item 4), “If a man comes to be purified, the evil inclination surrenders before him and the right governs the left. And both the good inclination and the evil inclination join to keep man in all the roads he travels, as it is written, ‘For He will give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.’”

We should understand how it can be said that the evil inclination keeps a person walking on the straight path. After all, it advises a person not to walk in the way of Torah, fails him in all his ways, and detains him from working for the sake of the Creator but only for his own sake. Thus, we should know how the evil inclination helps him.

The descents that a person receives, when the evil inclination gives him thoughts that are foreign to the spirit of Torah, cause him descents. According to a person’s opinion, it must be that the evil inclination brought him the feeling that love of self is more important than love of the Creator, and that this is the cause of the descents.

But in truth, one should believe that the Creator does everything. In other words, the Creator sends these descents to a person in order for them to give man momentum in the work so he will not be content with little. When a person feels that he does all that he can in Torah and Mitzvot, and he cannot discern the matter of the intention for the sake of the Creator, or that he is working for his own benefit, since when one works in the manner of the general public, an illumination shines on a person as Surrounding Light, giving him satisfaction so he will not feel any lack in his work.

Only when one wants to work in the manner of individuals, meaning that the aim will also be for the sake of the Creator, and not specifically the act (as said in Article No. 45, Tav-Shin-Nun-Aleph), then he is notified from above that he is not all right, and from this he falls into a descent. At that time, one sees his real situation and begins to seek a way by which to emerge from the control of self-love.

It therefore follows that were it not for the evil inclination, which brings him the state of descents, he would remain in a state of ascent and would not need to achieve the goal of Dvekut with the Creator. It follows that the evil inclination is an angel of God, a messenger of the Creator to keep him from staying in a state of “still of Kedusha [holiness],” but rather needing to advance. This is why he says, “For He will give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.” Thus, the evil inclination is also a messenger of the Creator to keep the person.

According to the above, we should interpret what we asked concerning the words of the Midrash that says, “‘If a man has two wives’ is the Creator. ‘Loved’ are the idol-worshippers.” How can it be said that the Creator loves the idol-worshippers? We should interpret that when it says, “If a man has two wives,” it means that the Creator gives to a person two wives, meaning two desires, one loved, meaning the will to receive for one’s own sake. This is called “idol-worshippers,” meaning not for the sake of the Creator but for one’s own sake.

That desire is called “loved,” meaning that the creatures love this desire because the Creator shows them the face. In other words, the Creator created the world because of His desire to do good to His creations. This is considered that the Creator is showing them the face, meaning to the will to receive, for it is impossible to receive pleasure if there is no yearning for the pleasure. Because of this, the Creator shows the face to the will to receive pleasure. That is, All that one does for oneself, one enjoys, and this is considered that He shows him the face.

Yet, why is this called “idol-worshippers”? The answer is that since there was a correction that in order to avoid the issue of shame, it is forbidden to receive in order to receive. One who does receive in order to receive is called in the work, “idol-worshipper.” In other words, he does not work for the sake of the Creator but for his own sake. In the work, this is called “foreign work,” “idol-worshipping.” Although in terms of the actions, he is considered “Israel” and a “servant of the Creator,” in terms of the work, which is to bestow, this is called “idol-worshipping,” meaning work that is foreign to us.

Since a person is born with an inherent nature to work only for one’s own sake, which a person calls “loved,” since the Creator shows them the face, as long as one works for his own sake, he has a desire to work, since by nature, he loves working for the will to receive. But when one wants to work for the sake of the Creator, which is to benefit the Creator and not himself, this desire belongs to the quality of “Israel” in a person, and that desire is called “hated,” since the Creator hides the face from them.

In other words, in order for one to be rewarded with “Israel,” the Creator hides His face from them, since when a person wants to walk in a manner where all his actions are for the sake of the Creator, in order to be able to receive in order to bestow, there had to be a concealment and Tzimtzum [restriction] on the Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds], so they would be able to say that they are observing Torah and Mitzvot without any reward, but only for the sake of the Creator. Since this is against nature, the body hates this work. And if a person wants to work specifically for the sake of the Creator, he has no other choice but to pray to the Creator to give him the strength to overcome the will to receive and subdue it

A person receives this power from above, as it is written, “He who comes to purify is aided.” That is, he is given a soul from above. It follows that specifically by having hatred for the quality of “Israel” in a person, he cannot overcome, since the body hates bestowal. At that time, there is room for one to truly be rewarded with the degree of “Israel” by asking for help from above.

This is the meaning of what was said, that from the two forces that there are in man—the evil inclination and the good inclination—a person can achieve the completion of the goal, for both of them keep him from veering off from the right path, neither to the right nor to the left, but to come to achieve the completeness of the goal, which is to receive the delight and pleasure that the Creator wants to impart upon the creatures.

It therefore follows that the “loved wife” is the idol-worshippers, and the “hated wife” is Israel. To this we should add that those two forces, the will to receive and the desire to bestow, are also called “man” and “beast.” That is, the will to receive in man is regarded as a “beast,” belonging to the quality of animals, in whom there is only self-benefit, and the “speaking” is the quality of “man,” which is the desire to bestow that man should achieve, and which he can achieve only through great efforts for the above reason, that by nature a person cannot understand how to do anything for the sake of the Creator.

That is, a person is concerned with satisfying the demands of his “beast,” but what the “man” in him demands, a person cannot satisfy. Rather, this requires asking the Creator to give him the power to overcome his “beast,” for without the help of the Creator, governance is given to thoughts and desires that hate the quality of “man” and the quality of “Israel,” which is the quality of “man,” as our sages said, “You are called ‘man,’ and the idol-worshippers are not called ‘man’” (Yevamot 61). Thus, the “hated woman” is “Israel,” from whom the Creator hides His face.

According to the above, we should interpret what our sages said (Avot 1:15), “Welcome every person.” We should understand what this tells us in the work. When a person wants to do something for his quality of “man,” and since the quality of “man” is hated, since all of man’s concerns are only to satisfy the demands that his “beast” demands, and the body loves the quality of the beast, but as for the quality of “man,” which is “Israel,” the body hates it; therefore, our sages came and warned, “Welcome every person,” where “every” means even all that is discerned as “man.”

In other words, we should appreciate even a small thing, if it pertains to the quality of “man.” Our sages told us that we should try to welcome the quality of “man,” and not as it seems to us as hated because the Creator hides His face from them. Rather, we should go above reason and welcome every person above what the mind of our body tells us. That is, we must do things that are suitable for the quality of “man.”

Although the “beast” within us screams and says that the work we want to do for the quality of man are unsuitable for sane people, since what we are, a demanding beast, this is acceptable, and the evidence is that the body loves this work. But what he wants, to work for the quality of “man,” you see that the body hates this. Clearly, the mind makes sense, since it says that by working for the quality of “beast,” this is reasonable and suitable for an intelligent person, while the work that you want to do for the quality of “man,” this is an act of a “beast,” meaning mindless.

Our sages tell us about this that we should not listen to what the body says, that it is making the argument of a “human,” but rather to welcome every “quality of man,” and say, “Although according to the mind and reason, the quality of man is hated, I believe in the words of the sages and I welcome them.”

By this we should interpret what our sage said, “Man and beast You deliver, O Lord.” These are people who are as cunning in their reason as people, and pretend to be as beasts. That is, although rationally, you are correct, and a person should walk on the path that he loves, still, “he pretends to be a beast,” mindless, and goes with faith above reason.

However, we should believe that by observing Torah and Mitzvot in practice in every detail and precision, thanks to the actions, we are rewarded with the Creator helping us from above so we will have the strength to go forward and be rewarded with obtaining the goal, which is that man will receive the delight and pleasure that there is in the purpose of creation. This is so because when we observe Torah and Mitzvot unconditionally, but only because of the commandment of the Creator, this is called an awakening from below. By this, the light and abundance extend from above, and they can emerge from the governance of evil.

This is as our sages said (RASHI in the name of Machilta) about what is written (Exodus 13:12), “When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you.” (He asks), “‘When I see the blood?’ But everything is revealed before Him! But the Creator said, ‘I look to see that you are engaged in My commandments, and I pass over you.”

We see that our sages said that so that no plague would befall them, meaning to emerge from the control of the evil, called “death,” as our sages said, “The wicked in their lives are called ‘dead,’” we were given the work in practice. Thanks to the work we do, the Creator is revealed to us, as it says, “And it shall be as a token for you.” What do we learn? “In return for the Mitzva that you are performing, I will have mercy on you.” Thus, thanks to the practice of Mitzvot, a person is saved from the governance of the will to receive, called “evil inclination,” and is rewarded with obtaining the desire to bestow.

However, one who walks on one line, who is satisfied with practice, when he works for the sake of the Creator and does not consider the intention, that the intention will also be for the sake of the Creator, he cannot obtain the desire to bestow, called Dvekut [adhesion]. This is so because he has no lack. Hence, these people who have already shifted from one line to the right line, when they see their lowliness, that there is not a single organ in that person that wants to do anything for the sake of the Creator, they yearn for the Creator to deliver them from death, meaning from the governance of self-love. At that time, his way to be rewarded with the Creator being revealed to him, meaning to be rewarded with the desire to bestow, which is when one is adhered to the Creator, a person can be rewarded with it only thanks to the practice, when he wants the reward for observing Torah and Mitzvot to be Dvekut with the Creator. This is the meaning of “In return for the Mitzva [sing. of Mitzvot] that you are performing, I will have mercy on you.” That is, He has mercy on us and saves us from death, which is the governance of the will to receive.

However, we see that man can do anything that is not on the path of correction. We see that this applies both in adults and in little children. And especially, we see this in little children since with grownups, everything already involves several reasons, so we cannot see the truth. But with children, we see this more openly, that children can toil all day, but if we ask them to do something, they say that they have no energy for the work. We should know that this extends from the world of Nekudim, where there was the breaking of the vessels. For this reason anything that does not pertain to correction, we have the strength to do. But if it pertains to correction, there is already labor involved due to the resistance of the body.

Hence, when a person walks on one line, he can observe Torah and Mitzvot in every way. But when he goes on the right line, when the work is on the path of correction, the person should then make great efforts to walk on the path of the “right.” This is why we need strengthening. 

Reader: Let's move to the lesson from October 2002.

M. Laitman: (34:07) We heard the article, "What Is the Son of the Beloved and the Son of the Hated in the Work?" from the book Dvarim, portion Ki Tetze, page 175. What is the son of the beloved and the son of the hated? There have to be two forces and only by them, the combination of them, it's possible to advance towards the goal. The power of good is good when evil exists and indeed, I've created the evil inclination. I've created the Torah, as a spice. It's only a spice, to give the right form to the evil, to turn the evil into good. Why didn't the Creator create some force which isn't evil or good, something neutral, let's say? Who knows how that is possible but let's say because anything can be attained only from its opposite, through its opposite. Therefore, it is impossible without the evil inclination and without the good inclination. None of them will have perfection, wholeness if we're talking about the will to receive. If without the will to receive then, of course, it's just the good inclination. No inclination, it's just good and so it's a complete, perfect thing. The Creator is good, not the good inclination, just good because it's not will, the desire like in us, the desire to enjoy, the desire to receive. It's simply a quality, the quality of good, the bestower, the quality itself, not founded on any desire where within, there's the will to receive and its form is that of the desire to bestow like it is in us. It's the will to receive and its shape, its intention is to bestow from within itself. The Creator doesn't have an inner and an external form. It's one, one thing and, therefore, we say that, for us, we have the issue of the good inclination and the evil inclination pertaining to us. The difference between the good and the evil inclinations: the inclination remains. It's the will to receive. It's our nature and the good or evil, those are the intentions over it. It's impossible without shifting between these intentions, the hated and the beloved, it's impossible to discern anything. It's impossible to discern what's between them and what the quality of the Creator is because we don't take the inclination itself into account. The inclination itself is our nature. It has no markings of evil or good. The will to receive, it's the will, something which is the opposite of the Creator's will. It's nature and with this oppositeness, although it is opposite and created as existence from absence there is neither good nor bad in it. The will to receive receives or takes on a form which is opposite to the Creator and that is called the intention in order to receive. That happens due to the shattering. That comes later, much later, after developments.

M. Laitman: (38:12) It receives the intention in order to receive and then that intention is the truly opposite form and that is what we call the evil inclination, not just using the will to receive as is but using the will to receive to delight oneself for selfish enjoyment. The opposite: using his will to receive in order to bestow, that's the good inclination. Meaning, the inclination remains. The will remains; it's not good or bad although it is the opposite of the Creator but this oppositeness is of no consequence. That is nature, it's not a hindrance. The only thing, the only hindrance, is the intention and then in intentions we have a difference between the beloved and the hated. Distinguishing between all these things is quite difficult, meaning to begin to work not on the will but on the intention. That is the entire difference between the Torah of the revealed and the Torah of the concealed, the landlords and the view of the Torah, the general population and the unique few, the chosen few meaning popular Judaism opposite Kabbalah and the Kabbalists. It's either working on the desire to reduce it, to diminish, restrict it, or they pay no heed to the desire; they only look at the intention, to invert it from in order to receive to in order to bestow. One who works against the desire itself is working against creation itself which the Creator created existence from absence and it's impossible to do anything about it. You can only force it, coerce, and, through fear, to try to hold it, to not use it and, of course, this is against the path of development and sooner or later a person will break through these limitations, these boundaries—leave religion, become free, begin to understand that this isn't the method that one can live by. Slowly, gradually, from generation to generation as the inclination grows, he begins to see that it's impossible to work against. He becomes more intelligent. He gets the knowledge that he shouldn't work against the inclination but, rather, work for the intention which is how to use his inclination, if in order to receive or in order to bestow meaning to benefit himself or to benefit others or the Creator. Now, to switch between using the inclination itself without paying attention to the intention, if in order to receive or in order to bestow but only the inclination itself when it is used, when it is worked with, so to speak to move from that to only correcting the intention, from in order to receive to in order to bestow, to switch from one to the other, that is the meaning of crossing the barrier, crossing from darkness to light. Then, the person begins to do God's work, the work of the Lord, the work of the Lord, of the Creator, that is the correction of the intention.

M. Laitman: (42:50) The work of the general population, what people are taught within the bounds of this world through various methods of education, religions, it's all about how to work with the inclination without intention. It's a huge difference and it's very, very difficult to catch oneself each time, to pay attention, right, to notice, to focus, not on the inclination but on the intention. We cannot work on the inclination in any way. We can only use it more or use it less. For us, this is called enlarging, diminishing, increasing, reducing but we can't really do that. It's existence from absence. It's all of creation so use it more or use it less and, then, of course, each one makes his own calculations with all his internal and external conditions, education, fear of punishment, and so on. He sees to what extent he can use his inclination. To begin with, the inclination works with the intention to receive. This is natural. This is what we received as an outcome of the shattering meaning the inclination we receive from the four phases of direct light, the intention we receive from the shattering. To begin with, we have the inclination, the will to receive and the intention which is in order to receive. We don't need to work on the will to receive. This is a constant. It's how it is before the restrictions and so on. It doesn't change. It can open up or close. It can be revealed or concealed only according to our ability to use it with the right intention. If we cannot use the right intention with this inclination, well, then, it opens to us, becomes available to us only to a minimal degree. We say that, then, it takes the form of the five senses. This is what we feel in the smallest inclination, the very smallest. The impression of the light appearing in it—it's called this world. If we can correct the intention, the right intention with this inclination so that it is in order to bestow, by installing that proper intention which is in order to bestow, in that inclination, then, the inclination begins to open up. Then, we can feel in it, in the same five senses, we can feel more. This, we call the sixth sense. It's not a sixth sense in addition to the five senses. It's that, in addition to the five senses, we have another five meaning they continue but through the intention to bestow. We call that sight, hearing, smell, speech, touch, but of the spiritual sort or we call it Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut of the vessels. Then, only to the extent that we can increase, magnify the intention, then our inclination opens more and more, to the degree it had without any limits prior to the first restriction and this is called the end of correction. What is correction? What is without correction? Without correction we have the state of this world meaning the usage of only a very small degree of the inclination which doesn't exist in relation to spirituality. Then, according to the measure of the intention to bestow we can use the inclination from the zero degree of spirituality and through to, let's say, the 125th degree which is the end of correction.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:09) How does a person not depress himself, not suppress himself going against his inclinations?

M. Laitman: I don’t know to suppress oneself. You need to see what you're going to work against or opposite; opposite the intention to receive or opposite the desire to receive. That is the work. First of all, the work of scrutiny. What am I even aiming at? What am I aiming to work with? Against the desire or the intention? Against the desire, what can you do? It's like a beast. You can strike the donkey or the cow but by that you will never turn it into a human being. 

Student: I can't do it against the desire.

M. Laitman: Yes, against the desire. That is the problem, that we think we can work against the desire. It seems to us that we can because it's within our power to seemingly shut it off so it's not utilized, right? To put it in handcuffs through fear, various other things. This is morality and the Torah of the multitudes, right? All of them, all of peoples, all religions, not just Judaism, they all say, “No, no, no, you have to be good otherwise you go to hell and, if not, well, if you be good then you’ll earn going to heaven.” You're just being told that you must never use the will to receive because to begin with it is in order to receive but they don't tell you to change the intention. Never mind the intention. Let that go. Meaning as though it's impossible, impossible to change the intention. We're impure and that's how we will remain and what can you do? Shut your mouth. Speak nicely. Don't do anything bad to others physically. Yes, that's it. The intention, that's in the heart, never mind that. That is, those are all the methods revolving around morality for the general population and that's why it's very opposed to the method of Kabbalah because that is called the Torah of the hidden meaning it can't be seen. All this work is truly for unique individuals. It's inner work and it's not against the will. It's against the intention. The problem is

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:49) How do I identify intentions?

M. Laitman: The problem is, first of all, to always look to see if I'm working against the desire or against the intention, to start to bring the intention up from within and to see how much I'm thinking about myself. Is it possible, now, to work opposite the intention? Can I see my intention? The desire, I can see. I want to. It's revealed to everyone, right? It's revealed in children, revealed to adults. I can also not disclose it to others. I can sit in your living room and say, “I don't want to eat thank you very much. I'll just have a glass of soda and that's it. Thank you.” but, inside, I do want more and you don't know my desire. Meaning I can shut off my desire or I can disclose it, to open it, and then it's revealed to me. That's why it's easy for me to work but I need to set some, I don't know, some barriers for myself, to get some kind of education, some order, some social agreements or some, well, any kind of socialization through religion, let's say, to know when and to what extent I can show my will to receive outwardly—that is all. What is the whole world saying? You need to be a good Jew. What does it mean to be a good Jew? Don't say any bad word. It's good for the society. I'm not saying it's bad, right? Do not steal, yes, and it doesn't matter if you want to steal or you don't want to steal. Don't steal. You understand? You work on the action, on using the will, not the intention. That is the Torah of the public. That's why it's opposite to the Torah of the individual. When you want to switch from this Torah of the public to the Torah of the individual then you have to make an actual shift in your perspective, your understanding, your thinking, how you see yourself. First of all, you need to think, always, about the intention, to think about the intention and why is that difficult? Because, then, you need to think about others, the Creator or others. The intention instead of in order to receive; the natural intention we get from the shattering, it needs to be in order to bestow. You need to always look at others or see the Creator to some extent and, now, you have a problem because that is not natural. It's not in the heart because no reward and punishment are revealed in relation to that. The society will not encourage you and will not force you and the society will not punish you for your intention because your intention is invisible to them, right? What can you do? You need to set guards and officers for yourself meaning you need to establish a very special mechanism inside, a mechanism by which I can now tend to my intention. Inside, I need to establish a whole nation. The me, the self, is no longer the desire. My self is the intention: in order to receive and opposite me, the Creator. Now, I try to turn the intention to, in order to bestow. We're talking about the intention, not about the desire. We don't talk about the desire and to constantly hold oneself only on the level of the intention above the will. Don't pay any attention to the will, to the desire. That, already, is called the hidden work, concealed because here you begin to discover this from within, to discover it for yourself. Others, they don't know what you're doing, who or what and you begin to need the Creator. You don't see who to work with. You also see that you cannot change your intention. You discover that the will, like everyone else, you can restrict. You can say, I don't want any more than a cup of tea. Thank you very much. I'm not hungry. You have the option to do that but the intention? You can't. You have no ability. You have no ability to do anything against the intention, to work, to scrutinize the intention. For that, you need light, the Creator's presence, and, also, to change it, if you want and you can do that only through Him. The light of AB-SAG, as we call it, those are serious corrections. You begin to be connected to the upper mechanism. You need to enter a completely different dimension where the intentions work with the desires to enlarge them, diminish them, how to work them, meaning not to increase them, decrease them, but to work with them more or less. That is called education in this world. The intentions are already above the barrier. There, it's the work of intentions and the restrictions are on the intentions. Right and left, the whole structure that a person makes for himself through the middle line, that's intentions. Degrees are intentions, meaning to the extent that you can use an intention in order to bestow, that means your degree. We all are different, can be different in our desires. You have a desire from, say, Ein Sof, a hundred kilo and I have eighty and he has sixty and someone else has forty. It doesn't matter. The desire doesn't mean anything because it is raw throughput. The intention above the desire, that's our work. It turns out that if you work on your intention with your desire and I work on my intention, my desire, over my desire, even if you have a greater desire than mine, we do the same work relatively. I come to my end of correction and you go to your end of correction and we're equal at the end of correction because the desire doesn't determine. What determines is the percentage at which you corrected your intention on it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:15) How is it possible to scrutinize the intention if I have no point of reference?

M. Laitman: You can scrutinize the intention if you have a point in the heart. The point in the heart is a spark of the broken screen and the screen is the intention to bestow. Broken means that it's in order to receive, meaning you begin to feel that what you are thinking about is for yourself. Talk to a person from outside. Tell him you're an egoist. He'll beat you up. He doesn't feel he's an egoist. You look at him. You see that all his actions are for self-benefit and he'll tell you, I did so many things. You know how much I gave. There was a person who visited me yesterday, said, you know how much I give every month? He has a supermarket, a big, big supermarket. He says, you know how much I give? Every month I give to this and that and how much food I give to poor people before Shabbat so they have something to eat and they come to me and I give them. Just imagine the pride, right? He gives it to people before Shabbat. Of course, on the level of this world, he does excellent work but with respect to spirituality, it's the opposite. He increases his own ego. He says, look, I personally stand and give it out to people before Shabbat, give them free food and they have something to eat. Then, he comes to me to complain and why is he sick? You know, the Creator, as if, doesn't accept what he's doing. He has a problem with the Creator because he's sick. He's getting sick and he doesn't understand why. It's very difficult. You hear a person speak like that and what can you say? That's why this is called the hidden wisdom.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:24) It appears that even after having scrutinized the intention, you can still fall.

M. Laitman: Certainly, after you scrutinize the intention and you think you're holding on to it, you fall into working with the desire itself.

Student: But you really look for the correction there.

M. Laitman: Yes, in the corrections it appears to you that it happens again and again. Of course it's—there's habit, there's education, there's the nature itself, the fact that it's hidden, that you don't see the reward and punishment. For that you need the help of the Creator, that He will shine to you with His light and then you can only work with the intentions. Without the light you cannot work with the intentions. With your eyes, with your senses, all you see is the desire.

Student: How can you identify?

M. Laitman: Oh, so, to identify, you can't. You don't have a choice but to yell to Him to give you some light so you have some sort of standard, some scale to work with, to measure. Where are You so I can see if I'm doing it for You or for me? Otherwise I've created some image of You as if it's for You but it's actually, it’s all coming back to me. It's me. I've built several characters and they're all me. Where are You in truth so that I can see that I'm aiming for Your sake? For that I have to feel You, Your deficiency, and see how I fill it up. I have no other tests. Look what you now begin to need: to feel His deficiency and see that you're fulfilling it and not your own, right?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:16) You say that we're in the world of outcomes. How, ultimately, if we do something right with our intentions, not in the right direction, not yet in order to bestow but, at least, we're working in that right direction and it's supposed to change, ultimately, the result. Ultimately, if we manage to change. 

M. Laitman: If I change the intention then my action changes? What do you mean? What action? I don't understand. We learn that all we need to change is the intention. What action?

Student: Not necessarily a physical action.

M. Laitman: Oh, so not a physical action but a spiritual action. A spiritual action is called intention. The intention is the action. Therefore, in spirituality, imagine that you have no body with all of your parts and organs and hands, legs, nothing, and all you have is the intention. That's called spirituality. You don't exist in your body. You only exist in your intention. Now, with that intention begin to build a body. What? How can you build a body from it? If you begin to receive from the Creator qualities. Before that you have nothing. You only have a point. What's, what's the point? That beginning of your “I” and all the rest is the first nine. You have nothing in the intention. You have nothing of the intention because the intention to receive, it's not, look, how to put it? If I get the words…with the intention in order to bestow, we have a Partzuf of ten Sefirot. even if it's impurity, intentions of impurity meaning in order to receive spirituality. They're still based on in order to bestow, as the opposite of it. Meaning there are qualities of the Creator, and from them you build the intention in order to receive or in order to bestow spirituality, Klipa or Kedusha. And for us, we don't have that. We only have one point, to begin to long for that, for having that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:07) If I now start working, if we start working like that with the intentions, to observe, to examine, to want the Creator — we're not there yet, but wanting it. Is my attitude towards the friend supposed to change as a result of my advancement in the preparation stage? My true attitude. I'm not talking about appearances. Inside, is my attitude supposed to change, something that only I can know about? Is my attitude towards the friends truly supposed to change?

M. Laitman: If I move from the intention in order to receive to the intention in order to bestow, or even before that, if I go from working on the desire just to be a pretty person, you know, educated on the outside, if I move from that to working on my intentions, then I seem differently on the outside. How? I seem on the outside more wild. Why? Because I'm letting go of my desires, as if less limiting them, less paying attention to them. I barely hold myself on the street, you understand? I just, I don't look at the desire itself. It just seems natural to me. What I am is what I am, like a beast, you understand? Meaning, theoretically, let's say, in the extreme, I can behave like a beast, you know, like going to the bathroom in the middle of the street. You understand? I'm saying this in an exaggerated way just to make you understand. If you move to taking care of your intentions, then the desire is just, it's just creation. You understand? It's just creation. We can suddenly start feeling like we don't belong to it. We don't belong to that creation, our body. But we belong only to our intentions. And only that is the "I," where my intention is. You following me?

Student: A little bit.

M. Laitman: And then you separate from the body, and you begin to belong more to your intention only, and you begin to live there. And you have a different world already, where you begin to build everything only there, inside the intention. And from there your intention is either to yourself or to the Creator. It begins to make, to draw spiritual depictions to you, that towards you is called shell, and outside of you is called holiness. And then you begin to be detached from corporeality, from beastliness, from what you used to call body. Now your body is a different thing. And then you move from the language of the branches to the language of the roots. Discussing the intentions is the language of the roots. Go there and live there.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:37) It's unclear to me how this doesn't block your advancement. How is it not a hindrance? If you transition to a state — I'm talking about before the barrier — if you transition to a state of intentions, it means that now you see that I don't have any ability to bestow. You see that you're always not aiming towards the goal. And also you develop a certain apathy towards your beastly desire. It's beastly, so you're apathetic towards it.

M. Laitman: You're afraid that your desire will so quickly leave you? You're afraid that you're going to transcend it to the intentions and you won't feel it? Well, try to neutralize it and you'll see how it grabs hold of you. It's not going to let you go. You'll be able to neutralize it only to the extent that you can truly be connected to the Creator.And then you won't neutralize it, but to that extent, you begin to join it, to attach it. So, the depiction I just made was without working together with the desire. I only talked about moving from one realm to another realm, from the realm of desires to the realm of  intentions. But I don't want to go further and confuse you with how to work with both.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:15) But from what you explained here, I don't know, statistically, call it whatever, a person reaches a state of apathy, where he prefers not to use his desire, because it causes him suffering. So most chances are that this is where you're headed, if you work on the intentions all the time.

M. Laitman: What's the question?

Student: The question is, how can a person prevent this state?

M. Laitman: I don't get it. Do you think you're actually managing your progress? Have you ever seen the next degree you're entering? Can you imagine what will happen to you in the next moment, inner feelings, thoughts, etc.? You suddenly catch yourself… where am I? I understand, you have a healthy mind. You want to maintain self-control constantly. It's not going to work out this way. Our work is not to supervise ourselves up ahead. The work is to determine the correct attitude to the current state.   

Student: How can you determine the right attitude to the work, if you don't see the final goal? How do you measure them if you don't see a few years to the future? So how can I take another step forward, if I can't see where I'm going?

M. Laitman: I can imagine for myself my next state, seemingly, according to how the upper one is seemingly depicted in me. You are the one who's depicting the Creator and the goal. It's not that it's like that. It keeps changing. So, each and every time we need to depict to ourselves the goal, the Creator, in the truest form possible in each and every state. And we'll compare this form with what we can depict to ourselves. And from this, effort will be rewarded truly each and every time with seeing Him in a more correct form. But that form will not be the way we depicted it earlier.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:09) What does it mean to equalize myself with the Creator?

M. Laitman: To equalize myself with the Creator means that as much as it seems to me that my intention is to be in order to bestow, that's what I wish to seemingly pull myself up to.

Student: But how can you want it, you hate it?

M. Laitman: If I hate it, I hate it. It's okay. But that's the picture.

Student: And where's the fuel to advance from?

M. Laitman: The fuel is only from the society, from the books.

Student: But how do you cause yourself to want something that is the opposite of this?

M. Laitman: Look, the fuel for you, the main type of fuel is that you cannot leave, because it will be very difficult for you to later justify yourself. I'll be on the street somewhere, I'll go have fun. But wherever I go, I will hate myself. I will ask myself, what am I doing? Every pleasure I'm going to receive, I'm going to feel so bad in it that I will hate the pleasure. I'll hate myself. I'll hate life and everything. So, it's the least of all evils, right? So, I'm sitting here.

Student: But that I'm sitting here doesn't mean that I'm advancing.

M. Laitman: Okay, that's a different question. If I have those thoughts that I have nowhere to run to, and I hate this place, and I hate all other places, if I could disconnect myself, right? So, what to do? Only forward. There's nothing else that's left. You will never be satisfied with your current state; not here, inside this world, meaning inside your group here, inside Bnei Baruch, and you'll never be satisfied on the outside. They arrange it for you this way from the heavens so you will be able to apply an impulse to move forward, right? Drive yourself forward, and you'll always have doubts. It's better there, it's better here, it's like that. This is the slingshot, you know. This is called the incarnations that you're going through. Instead of dying, and being born, and going to the kindergarten, and school, and everything, and again arriving here again, then in my place someone else will sit here, right? It doesn't matter who, someone who wasn't even born yet. So they're creating the inside of this life for you.

Student: I'm really… It really hurts me the things that we talked about in the past hour.

M. Laitman: Oh, thank you. I didn't really intend it, but it's healthy. Okay, now, so calm down now from the mind, from the intellect. 

S. (01:16:33) About what you asked, you can't know, because when you know, you know. It's like you don't know when you miss someone or love someone. And when you love someone, you do, and you know that you're there. You can't know that in advance. When it happens, it happens. You feel it. 

R. That's what I meant. Speak from the mind and not from the heart. He is extremely intellectual, mental, and you're very emotional. How can you understand one another? I feel, I feel. He says, I don't feel anything. 

S. It's a new place. Do you know? 

R. You don't know, you feel. 

S. How do you… 

R. Now, so calm down. I didn't say it for nothing. I wasn't kidding around.

Student: When you're already in the intention in order to bestow, how does that change the reality of this world? Because you said that you really see yourself. 

R. If I am in the intention in order to bestow, I see myself, the reality in this world. 

S. So you influence the reality of this world?

M. Laitman: Influence?

Student: I mean, you have a body in this world. How does it affect reality?

M. Laitman: Well, there are a few things here. You're asking how to behave relative to this world, how to accept it, how do I actually feel it. Meaning, seemingly, I have a Creator. I have this world. There's me. Does it all become one, or do I need to… Is it divided in me in several directions, right? I would say that all those things exist together and also independently, individually. It depends on what I'm about to do. These are the Partzufim of Se’arot. If I relate to the upper one, then I relate to it as the upper one that's in me, the AHP of the upper one. If I relate to the lower one, then I relate to it through the Partzuf of Se’arot. Then I need to behave a certain way in corporeality and in spirituality so that I'll have a form of communication with it, a certain mutual work. And if I'm relating to myself, then it's a different kind of work where I need to raise the AHP. The way we learn in the Study of the Ten Sefirot, it begins to be the relationship between the lower one, the upper one, and the upper's upper one.

Student: (01:19:41) Does the real spiritual work change the reality that I'm in?

M. Laitman: The physical reality doesn't change. The world behaves as it's accustomed to behave. Nothing changes. If I take this cup, you see that it's a cup. I see it's a cup. You're using it this way. I also am mostly using it this way. The reality in our five senses doesn't change. Beastliness doesn't change. The desire itself doesn't change. Only the intention changes.

Student: Yes, but when you're already in the right intention, your physical actions change, because you no longer do what you did before.

M. Laitman: What do you mean, actions? No, no, no. No, you construct a whole ideology here.

Student: What do you mean that my actions don't change?

M. Laitman: What actions change? My physical actions don't change. I remember, like everyone, I went to the doctor, he checked me, said, man, you're not good. You have problems with your sugar level. It looks to him that I'm getting, I'm becoming worse according to my tests. 

S. So, your reality doesn't change?

R.  The desire doesn't change. And our body is also a desire. It's a desire where our cells desire to maintain themselves and our organs are programmed to work according to a certain plan, meaning a desire to maintain itself, a desire to sustain itself on several levels, right? That's the body. Of course, it doesn't change.

Student: Doesn't that make you more and more of a zombie?

M. Laitman: Why a zombie? I become a zombie?

Student: No, I'm asking you.

M. Laitman: Why?

Student: Because my reality is changing. I no longer do the things that I used to do. I want to do things that annul myself more and more.

M. Laitman: Soon you're going to have pears instead of a nose ring, watch out. It's going to go too far. No, no, I'm kidding, of course. My question is, everything that can exist, even if your body does not exist, you're dead. The body rots. Nothing is left. All that's left is that essential bone. What is that bone? The loose bone, the bone that doesn't… It's a point that doesn't belong to the body, rather the point that belongs to the spiritual world in you. So, that point, if you begin to grow from that, it will be spirituality. Otherwise, you can burn. It has nothing to do with anything. The rest is a clothing through which we begin to connect. Imagine now, do your garments matter, the length of your beard, all kinds of things we're doing with the body?

Student: I mean, I stopped doing different things that I used to do. What's next in this world physically in terms of matter? Does matter in this world…?

M. Laitman: What do you need to do? You need to do the commandments. You had your own commandments before, right? You used to meditate, you would light candles. I don't know. Today you're going to do something else, perhaps.

Student: What did I do? 

M. Laitman: What did you do before? I don't know. Whatever you're going to do now, I also don't know. Try. Again. We do something with the body only in order to maintain a more correctly organized intention, in such a way that you can work within the intention. All the physical actions are justified, but in the direction of the correct intention. So, you are going to say: I'm going to sit down in a lotus pose and all those things.

M. Laitman: I'm telling you that if you behave, if you concentrate on the correct intention, it's not going to be in this way. But anything that the body can do now, for the time being, to assist this, for the time being, it's justified. That's why certain minimal things that come from the Jewish tradition, the Judaism, they can help maintain a person, remind him about the intention, if he's doing it in a truthful way. And in that sense, keeping the commandments is truly worthwhile. Then you begin to do it as a commandment without intention, it's like a body without a soul. And then if you can do it together, or that keeping it, observing it, it brings you the intention, then certainly it's worthwhile.

Student: (01:25:32) What are the minimum things?

M. Laitman: The minimal things are those that can remind you about keeping the intention.

Student: Things that I'll find out myself? I'll know?

M. Laitman: No, you'll not know by yourself. Alone, you'll know by yourself? You know, if you're like Abraham, the forefather, who was a Bedouin, I don't know, he knew nothing. And then he started to reveal the spiritual world. And from the spiritual world, he learned about the spiritual commandments. That's it.

Let's sing.

Song: (01:32:17)