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

Daily Lesson (Morning) April 25, 2024.

Part 1: Rabash. Article No. 22, (1989). Why Are Four Questions Asked Specifically on Passover Night?

Reader: Hello, we're reading in the writings of Rabash. The article, Why Are Four Questions Asked Specifically on Passover Night?” You can find the study materials on our website and in the Galaxy Systems. You can also ask questions live through our websites. Anyone asking a question in the study hall is asked to stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth, and speak loud and clear.

Reading Article No. 22: (00:45) Why Are Four Questions Asked Specifically on Passover Night?

As we see, when does one ask questions? When he is lacking. He is asking, “Why do I need to suffer from not having what I think I need?” He comes to the Creator with complaints and demands and asks, “Why do I need to suffer?” But when a person has abundance, what questions are there to ask when he feels that he is free, that he is not enslaved by anything, or feels that what he does not have pains him, giving him room to ask, “Why”?

Therefore, we should understand why we ask questions specifically on Passover night, which is the festival of freedom. Also, they are called “four questions,” meaning four times “Why,” precisely when he is not lacking anything.

According to what the ARI says, Passover night is more complete than the eve of Shabbat [Sabbath]. He says that on the eve of Shabbat there is an ascent of Malchut to Mochin de Neshama, but on Passover night, there is an ascent of Malchut to Mochin de Haya, such as on the day of Shabbat (see Shaar HaKavanot). Thus, we should understand why we ask questions specifically at a time of wholeness. Certainly, there are many answers to this, and we will interpret this in the work.

It is known that the work we were given in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] is so that through them we will correct ourselves to be worthy of receiving delight and pleasure, since for this man was created, as it is known that the purpose of creation is to do good to His creations. However, to avoid the shame upon reception of the pleasures, since every branch wishes to resemble its root, and since the root bestows upon the creatures, there is disparity of form between the giver and the receiver, which causes us shame.

Therefore, to correct it, a Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment were placed on the upper Providence. Thus, through the Tzimtzum and concealment, a place was made in which we are so far from the Creator that it causes us to have very little understanding of His guidance over His creations. It is written about it in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” (Items 42-43), where he says that if Providence were revealed, and for instance, one who ate something forbidden instantly choked, and one who performed a Mitzva [commandment/good deed] immediately discovered a wonderful delight in it, similar to the greatest pleasures in our corporeal world, what fool would even contemplate tasting something forbidden when he knew he would immediately lose his life for it, or wait to receive a great corporeal pleasure when it came into his hand? Thus, the Tzimtzum and concealment, which were made to correct the shame, cause us all the labor and remoteness from the Creator.

It follows that the Tzimtzum, and concealment were made to benefit the lower one. Thus, there is no point in asking about Providence, “Why is the Creator treating us as it seems to us, for we do not see the good and we suffer in exile, poverty, and so on?” In other words, everyone complains about why the Creator behaves with undisclosed guidance toward us, that it is only good.

For this reason, it is forbidden to slander His guidance—the way He behaves with the creatures. Instead, we must believe with faith above reason that it should be precisely as we see it. And concerning what we feel, we should walk in the ways of Torah, as the sages have instructed us how to behave with all these feelings that we feel, and to say about them with faith above reason, “They have eyes and see not,” as is written in the article from 1943.

It is known that there is a prohibition on slander. However, it is commonly thought that slander, which is so bad, is between man and man. But in truth, slander is primarily between man and the Creator, as it is written (Shemot Rabbah, Chapter 3, 12), “Moses caught the act of the serpent, who slandered his Creator, as it is said, ‘For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be as God, knowing good and evil.’”

With the above-said, we can see why slander is worse than other things. It is because slander is primarily from the serpent, who slandered the Creator and told him, “The Creator commanded you not to eat from the tree of knowledge, but to keep it in concealment and in hiding.” The serpent told him about that, “You shouldn’t obey what He told you, that the tree of knowledge should remain hidden from the lower ones.” Instead, his argument was that everything should be open.

That was the serpent’s slander. It follows that he spoke about Providence, that the Creator’s conduct with the creatures of undisclosed guidance was wrong. But in truth, the concealment is only so that the creatures will be able to receive the delight and pleasure without shame. This can only be when the creatures receive everything for the sake of the Creator, meaning that all the reception will be only in order to bestow.

It follows that the serpent’s slander is not a part. Rather, he spoke about the entire correction that was executed on Malchut so that the lower ones, who extend from her, would be able to achieve Dvekut [adhesion], called “equivalence of form,” by which there would be the correction that enables them to receive the delight and pleasure without any unpleasantness, called “shame.”

Because of this correction, we were given the Torah and Mitzvot by which to be able to emerge from self-love, which is separation from the Creator, and achieve equivalence of form, as our sages said, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the spice of Torah.” According to the serpent’s slander, there will be open Providence, meaning everything will be disclosed, even though the Creator explicitly told Adam, “But of the tree of knowledge you shall not eat.” Instead, this discernment must be covered and only at the end of correction will it be possible to illuminate this discernment.

About that, too, the serpent told him not to obey the Creator. In other words, the Creator did not do this in Adam’s favor, that the Creator’s guidance over the creatures—the Good who does good—will be undisclosed, but for other reasons. It turns out that the serpent’s slander was a general thing, meaning he said that all the corrections we should do by the power of Torah and Mitzvot are not for the man’s purpose.

This is the reason why slander is the most severe of all prohibitions, since it encompasses the whole of the Torah. In other words, with this slander, all the corrections that were made should not be made. Thus, since it is so grave between man and the Creator, the prohibition between man and man is a grave matter, too, as we said about “love your friend as yourself,” which Rabbi Akiva said was the great rule of the Torah.

It follows that one who slanders acts the opposite of the rule, “Love your friend as yourself.” Hence, slander between man and man is also a rule. This is why it is such a grave prohibition.

With the above, we can interpret what our sages said (Sanhedrin 38), “Rav Yehuda said, ‘Rav said, ‘Adam HaRishon was heretical.’ And RASHI explains, ‘‘Was heretical’ means that he leaned toward idolatry.’’”

This is very difficult to understand. Adam HaRishon spoke to the Creator. How can one who speaks to the Creator be heretical—that his heart will lean toward idolatry? After all, the Creator spoke to him, so how can he be mistaken to the point that his heart leaned toward idol worship?

As we said above, the Creator told him that the tree of knowledge should be in concealment and must not be disclosed before the end of correction. When the serpent came to him and told him not to obey the Creator, that this great pleasure was found in the tree of knowledge, which the Creator hid from him, he took to heart the serpent’s slander. This is called that he “was heretical.”

RASHI interpreted that his heart leaned toward idolatry, meaning that his heart leaned toward what the serpent told him—that it would be better if there were open Providence in the world, as the serpent advised him. This is called “heretic,” one who does not like His governance. This means that he thought, according to the serpent’s advice, that if the tree of knowledge were revealed and there were open Providence, many would engage in the holy work, for the above reason that everyone would observe Torah and Mitzvot because it would all be clothed in the intellect, within reason, and not that everything must be above reason.

In other words, the tree of knowledge means that everything is revealed within reason, and on that was the commandment to refrain from eating. That is, our work toward the Creator should be above reason and not within reason, although it is reasonable to think that if everything were clothed within reason, the servants of the Creator would proliferate.

This is the meaning of the serpent’s slander, who spoke badly about Providence. Since the Creator made the work of the Creator above reason, it does not mean that the Creator could make everything within reason. Instead, we must believe, although we do not understand, that this guidance is the best.

And so did Baal HaSulam say—that the Creator chose the way of faith above reason because the Creator knows it is the most successful way for the lower ones to reach the goal called “Dvekut with the Creator,” which is equivalence of form, called “receiving in order to bestow.”

Although the sin of the tree of knowledge relates to high degrees—the light of the end of correction—as explained in the “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” with regard to our work—we should interpret that one who slanders Providence, saying that he does not want to believe that His guidance over the creatures is benevolent, and that it is so to believe above reason.

However, a person says, “If there were open Providence, if I could see with my mind that the Creator bestows benevolently upon all creations, and if it were within reason, only in this way would I be able to observe Torah and Mitzvot.” This comes because of the sin of the tree of knowledge—that a man wants to go specifically within reason and not believe above reason. Hence, when he does not believe that He is good and does good, he is slandering the Creator. This is rooted in the time when the serpent slandered the Creator to Adam HaRishon.

A person wanting to go within reason is called “the sin of the tree of knowledge.” This sin appears in two ways, in two questions that extend from it: 1) Pharaoh’s question, who asked, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” meaning it is hard for him to believe anything that contradicts reason. And another thing extends from it, a second question, “Why should one work to benefit the Creator and not himself?” In other words, he is asking, “What will I gain by working for the sake of the Creator and not for my own sake?”

With the above-said, we can understand what we see, that even after one has overcome and said that he is taking upon himself to walk on the path of truth, and begins to believe in faith in the sages, reason dictates that each day he should advance and move forward. Yet, he sees that it is actually the complete opposite—each day he is regressing. Thus, reason makes him say, “This work of going in bestowal is not for me. Rather, it is work for a chosen few.” He understands that he would be better off escaping the campaign.

And what is he told? That he should once again go with faith above reason and disregard what reason compels him to do. As it is written in the essay “Faith in His Rav” (1943), one cannot see his true state. Instead, he should go above reason, and only in this way can we reach the goal and be rewarded with Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator.

However, we should understand what it gives us to feel within reason that we are regressing instead of progressing. In other words, for what purpose does one need to feel that he is in decline? What is the benefit in that? We see that in a state of ascent, when one has a desire for spirituality and regards mundane pleasures—which the whole world chases so as to obtain these pleasures—as though they were created needlessly, meaning that it would be better if the Creator created all creations enjoying spiritual things.

Thus, regarding thoughts of declines, what does one gain by the fact that after each ascent he comes to a descent? As a result, a person always asks, “How many are the ascents and descents and why are they needed anyway? It would be better if I could stay in the state of ascent.”

But the answer is that it is impossible to appreciate anything without knowing its importance. In other words, there is a rule that the joy that a person takes in something depends on the importance of the matter. Sometimes a person is given something important, and if he could appreciate it, he could receive great pleasure from it. But since he does not know the value of the thing, that person cannot enjoy it, except to the extent that he understands its importance.

For example, a person buys an object, a book, which is not so beautiful on the outside, and later that book is reprinted and costs more, but since he did not have much money, he bought this book. The seller, too, was not aware of the importance of the book and sold it to him for a low price. But sometime later, a man comes to his house, sees the book, and says, “Since this book was printed 300 years ago, this book is worth a fortune, as there are only three such books in the world.” Now that he hears about the great value of the book, he begins to take pleasure in the book.

The lesson is that we do not know how to appreciate the ascent. That is, we do not understand the value of a single moment of having the power to believe in the Creator, and to have some sensation of the greatness of the Creator. In a state of ascent, we desire to annul before Him without any rhyme and reason, like a candle before a torch. Naturally, we cannot enjoy the fact that the Creator has brought us closer and has given us some nearness, from which we should derive the joy and elation that it should bring us. But since we haven’t the importance to appreciate it, we can only enjoy according to the importance, as explained in the allegory.

This is why we were given descents: to be able to learn the importance of the ascents, as it is written, “as the advantage of the light from the darkness.” Specifically, through descents, one can come to know and appreciate ascents, and then he can enjoy the ascents and come to feel that “They are our lives and the length of our days.” But when one does not know the need for faith because he thinks that engaging in Torah and observing Mitzvot is enough for him to be considered a servant of the Creator, he is not given descents from above so as to appreciate the ascents.

Their work is on the outside. They have no intention of entering the inside. That is, they have no intention to completely annul before the Kedusha [holiness/sanctity]—and holy means “retired and separated from himself,” as it is written, “You will be holy for I am holy,”—at which time there is only the authority of the Creator because the lower one wishes to annul before the root, and all he sees is that it is worthwhile to live only to benefit the Creator.

For a person to be in a state where he wants to live only in order to give contentment to the Creator, he must provide himself with great faith in the greatness of the Creator, to make it worthwhile to annul himself for the sake of the Creator. The faith he has acquired during his upbringing is not enough for him. With the faith that he has acquired during the upbringing, he can already work and observe the Torah and Mitzvot in all its details and precisions. This is because he does not have to annul himself before the Creator. Instead, he asks of the Creator that in return for his observing the Torah and Mitzvot that the Creator commanded us through Moses, the Creator will grant all his wishes.

He believes in reward and punishment, and certainly, as our sages said (Avot, Chapter 2, 21), “If you studied much Torah, trust your landlord to pay the reward for your work.” Hence, since the basis obligating him to observe Torah and Mitzvot depends on the reward, not on the giver of the reward, he does not have to engage in the greatness of the faith in the Creator, but in the greatness or smallness of the reward. Hence, there is no question of ascents and descents, believing in the greatness and importance of the Creator. Rather, the only thing that is pertinent there is that he engages in Torah and Mitzvot or that he grows weaker in observance because he does not always believe in the reward.

This causes those who engage in Torah and Mitzvot in order to receive reward—who are sometimes among people who do not believe in reward and punishment—to be able to influence a person with their thoughts. This might cause him even to stray completely from Judaism. Hence, they must not come in contact with people who are free in their views, since they bring them foreign thoughts about faith in reward and punishment. But on the whole, those who engage Lo Lishma [not for Her sake] do not experience ups and downs, meaning there is no need for the presence of descents.

But those who wish to work because of the importance of the Creator, who always need to increase the faith in the importance and the greatness of the Creator, that only the importance and the greatness of the Creator obligates them to observe Torah and Mitzvot in order to achieve Dvekut with the Creator, those people must always assume and value the greatness of the Creator. They must always assess that if they have some grip on spirituality, it is because the Creator is bringing them closer, while they themselves are completely powerless unless they see that they will derive from it some benefit for themselves. It follows that the main work is to annul himself. Yet, this is against nature; only by His salvation can they achieve it.

Thus, during the ascent, a person thinks that it is natural and that he does not need the Creator’s help at all. Hence, a correction was made, called “descents,” where one is always shown the measure of his strength—what he can do by himself and how he sees it. But when he is tossed off from his state, where he thought he was already human and not like the beasts that work for themselves, suddenly he cannot even feel that they wish to throw him down into this baseness, in which he discovers himself afterwards.

And yet, during the descent, he does not see that he is beginning to decline. Rather, when he descends, he remains unconscious. After being down for some time, he also gets help from above and he is told, “Know that now you are in decline.” Before he is told that he is unconscious, he does not know a thing. However, one should believe that this, too, is so, since knowing does not come by itself. Instead, one should know that these descents were given to him to learn how it is possible to appreciate the state of ascent. But during the descent, one cannot learn anything from it.

However, during the ascent he can make a true judgment and say, “Now I am in a state of faith, and this came to me from the Creator. Otherwise, I would immediately fall into a state of self-love.” If he does not make this calculation and thank the Creator for bringing him closer, he is immediately thrown. It turns out that it is impossible to obtain real pleasure from nearing the Creator unless he can appreciate it, as said above, “As the advantage of the light from the darkness.”

It follows that for the creatures to receive the delight and pleasure and feel it, those descents were all necessary. They are called “exile,” and this is called “Shechina [Divinity] in exile” or “Shechina in the dust.” Only by this will one have the Kelim [vessels] to feel the delight and pleasure.

With the above-said, we can understand why specifically at the time of freedom, which is Passover night, the complete wholeness, as the ARI says, that Malchut has the same Gadlut, since Malchut has Mochin de Haya, and so it is on Passover night.

The answer is that precisely during an ascent, when one thinks of descents they had the power to elicit the importance of ascents. Otherwise, it is akin to one who is given something that is worth a fortune, and he uses and enjoys it as though it’s worth was a few pennies.

Thus, specifically at the time of freedom, it is possible to ask the questions. That is, it is not about the questions, but we need the questions in order to understand the answers, as Baal HaSulam said about what is written, “Speak now in the ears of the people, and let them borrow every man of his neighbor.” RASHI interprets that he warned them that that righteous will say, “He kept, ‘And they shall serve them, and they shall afflict them,’ and He did not keep, ‘Afterward they will come out with great possessions.’” There is a question: “If the Creator wished to give great possessions to the people of Israel, could the Creator not give them? Did he have to tell the people of Israel to be fraudulent and borrow vessels of silver and vessels of gold from the Egyptians?”

The answer is that when the Creator told Abraham, “To give this land unto you to inherit it,” Abraham asked, “By what will I know that I shall inherit it?” “And he said unto Abram, ‘Know for certain that your seed will be a stranger in a land that is not theirs ... and afterwards they will come out with great possessions.’” He asked, “What do we see in the Creator’s reply to Abram's question, ‘By what will I know…,’ that by being in a land that is not theirs, meaning in exile, Abram could be certain that they would inherit the land?”

He said that since there is no light without a Kli [vessel]—meaning no filling without a lack, and Abram said to the Creator that he did not see that they would need such great lights, called “the land of Israel”—the Creator told him that by being in exile and by asking the Creator to deliver them from exile, how will He deliver them? Only with great lights, since “The light in it reforms him.” Thus, then they will have the need for the great lights.

He explained about this that this is why the Creator said to borrow Kelim [vessels] from the Egyptians—meaning take the hardness of the Egyptians, but as a loan—to receive the lights, and then return the Kelim to them. In other words, they took the questions in order to understand the answers. It is as was said above, it is impossible to understand the light if not from within the darkness. This is why all the questions come specifically at the time of freedom.

M. Laitman: Are there any questions? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:50) First of all, this article is really, it kind of spreads the whole work out for us. Really, if you can see the greatness of Rabash, what practical advice does he give us here, that during the ascent we should take the previous states, the descents, and do what with them, exactly? The questions we had, what should we do with that? 

M. Laitman: What should we do with that, prepare the questions and ask for answers. 

Student: These are questions that we had, and a person sees that now he reached an ascent because of them? Or are these questions that are preparation for the next state?

M. Laitman: No, the next stage seemingly doesn't exist. It's clear what is the next state. Rather, for the first time in his life, a person understands that his path is made out of questions and the answers of the Creator. And also questions from the Creator, and it's upon the person to collect them. And one by one ask for each question to be revealed to him more and more the attitude of the good Creator to them.

Student: This is in order to avoid the descent?

M. Laitman: It's hard to avoid, as much as it is to know that descents are essential, they're necessary, you can't do without them. And we merely need to raise every descent into an ascent, into a question. And then every descent becomes an ascent.

Student: That is, if a person prepares these questions, if he asks that these questions will be revealed to him because they too come from above. Then he already prepares himself for the descent that will come?

M. Laitman: No, he doesn't need to feel a descent, he needs to feel descent and ascent together, and advance in this way.

Student: Actually, it's like a dialogue with the Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:54) He gives us the choice between above reason and within reason. How can a person keep his heart from the bad states, like it says here that he was a heretic, and things like that?

M. Laitman: He's incorporated of the states, and that's why you can say that he can hear them. He's incorporated, he goes through those states, he's immersed in them, he's incorporated in them. And later out of these negative states, he begins to ask further, and he reaches answers. 

Student: What should be the shield for our heart?

M. Laitman: The shield on the heart?

Student: Yes.

M. Laitman: Only the connection between us. Because from there, from the lack of connection between us, the Creator brings forth all the questions. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:25) In the beginning of the article, he says that we should ask for faith from all of our Torah and Mitzvot. When I ask for something, I have a tangible image of what I'm asking for. When I ask for faith, what kind of image should I have?

M. Laitman: I don't understand what you're saying about some image. 

Student: When I ask for something, lemon juice, I have a taste, I have something that I depict to myself. What can help me, what kind of image or thought in order to ask for faith? What does it mean to ask for faith? 

M. Laitman: It means that you're in a state, like you're in right now, but slightly different, and you're filled with the light of faith.

Student: Different in which direction, what does it mean to be filled with the light of faith?

M. Laitman: I don't know, if you're not full then you don't know what it means to be filled by it. 

Student: I need to be supported by the records that I had when I felt something?

M. Laitman: I don't know, you need to ask the Creator to bring you closer to faith. Well, that's it, you need to connect more to the friends in order to be among them. And from that, to receive, to be impressed by the need for faith that they have.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:23) What is the difference between the questions and the slander?

M. Laitman: You are asking questions because you think that by solving them, by answering them, you'll be able to reach the goal. That's why the questions are legitimate questions. you are raising to reach the goal. 

Student: With the questions, too, a person is inside his reason. Is there a difference between the slander that is within his reason and the state of the questions? 

M. Laitman: There are questions that come from a negative desire. But there are questions that a person must resolve or get answers to in order to approach the necessary state. 

Student: He speaks about the four questions that we ask on the night of Passover which seemingly elevate us to a very high place. Against that, opposite that, he describes a state where a person has lack of faith. He's asking questions and it brings him down to a very low place. What is the difference between these questions and those questions? 

M. Laitman: The difference is essential, qualitatively essential: What does a person want to receive with these questions? Either he's asking for help from the Creator, which should come according to his degree. Or he's missing out and he's not asking for what's necessary. So, the questions have to be, also the questions themselves, who is the Creator that he should listen to him, what is his work to you, and through these questions, he can see that he's not exactly aimed at the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:29) What should we work on, on the greatness of the Creator himself or on the greatness of bestowal? 

M. Laitman: The greatness of bestowal without tying it to some real, tangible action then it's not a question. 

Student: I'm asking because when we are in an ascent, the possibility to bestow opens up to us, to the friends, to the group. Why isn’t this inspiration enough for us in order to hold on to that state?

M. Laitman: Because you feel yourself in an ascent, in a special state.

Student: It feels like we've exhausted that state pretty quickly, and then he also says that the Creator brings us down in order for us to recreate his greatness so that we will be able to work for him, for his benefit. What am I missing out on during the descent, also? 

M. Laitman: We forget about the Creator to some extent. And then the upper force that does everything, disappears relative to the eyes of a person. And a person doesn't know what to hold on to, what should he reach for, where should he move to?

Student: What does it mean to make up for ourselves the greatness of the Creator during the descent? What is this work? How do we do it?

M. Laitman: Talk amongst yourselves, that is enough for the Creator to be revealed. Because when we speak, there's a desire between us to attain the Creator and each and everyone wants to connect to the friends. And together with them, reach, come to the correct bestowal, I'm sorry, the correct deficiency for the revelation of the Creator, and that's it, that's enough. 

Student: Because we're always searching for the quality of bestowal and love, this is what we are always lacking. The Creator Himself, who arranges all of the states, His goal seemingly we forget about Him. I don't know, we seemingly lack something which is not exactly Him, to bestow to Him. Rather, we lack being like Him, bestowing, loving. What is this lack, that what we lack is Him, a connection with Him, to bestow to Him. Seemingly, we don't reach this deficiency.

M. Laitman: How shall we come to this? I think what is demanded of a person is to point with his finger, literally, that He is the one that we lack, the Lord, our God, and we wish to reach Him. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:01) I want to try to continue what the friend was asking. There is a state of bestowing to the Creator, bestowing contentment to Him, actually means to bestow Lishma, to be in Lishma. When a person is in the act, itself, really in the act itself, and he carries it out purely for His sake, without any reward. If he succeeds, this is actually what it means to bestow contentment to Him. It's not to someone, it's a quality. The Creator is a quality, the quality of bestowal, the quality of Bina, as we learn. So, is this what it means to bestow to Him?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: This is the direction, Yashar El?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:58) How is it possible to see that the Creator chose for us the path of above reason. That it's actually His choice and He thinks that this is the best possible way for us. Like Rabash says, that with this, specifically, we will reach, in the best way, adhesion and equivalence of form? 

M. Laitman: Again? 

Student: How is it possible to feel that this is the Creator's view? That the Creator specifically chose this path for us of above reason, and the concealment and everything we see. That this is something that He chose for us, this is the best possible thing, as Rabash says in the article. That Baal HaSulam also said the same thing?

M. Laitman: We will be able to feel it better by asking and receiving an answer, where this answer is truly depicting for us the response of the Creator.

Student: Can we ask the Creator that He will open up for us? That You have chosen this way for us, can we ask Him for it?

M. Laitman: Yes, yes.

Student: Now, what is this sin of the Tree of Knowledge because of which we cannot be under concealment, because of which we don't want to undergo correction. This is our heart's inclination, that we don't want all of the correction that the Creator had prepared for us because of the sin of the Tree of Knowledge. Ever since then, it's been difficult for us to walk in His path. What is this thing that happened or what is this thing that, you know, it's the root of all of our problems?

M. Laitman: It's our ego that doesn't fall asleep and doesn't ever come out of us, but rather, to the contrary. It is constantly making it more difficult for us to detect it. 

Student: They said there was something there, that serpent. Before it everything was seemingly fine, and since the moment that it opened, something opened up to Him, and we are carrying this baggage to this day. What is this thing, what just, what happened there, that suddenly we're, what is this deed? What happened in creation that we suddenly are unable to go in faith, we don't want to take these corrections upon ourselves?

M. Laitman: This is because of this quality, we mean, it's called the serpent. That we receive an intellectual answer and we're satisfied with it. 

Student: There's a power that convinces us, that's convincing us, what is this power that we have to deal with? That convinces us that we don't need correction, we can keep going like this, without correction, without bestowal, without faith. What is this power, what is this thing, where does it come from?

M. Laitman: It all comes from the Creator, and we are in the middle. In between this and that. 

Student: What is this, it relates to love your friend as yourself, the slander. Rabash keeps adding it there, the slander in the love your friend as yourself is a grave. How is it related to love your friend as yourself, this problem? 

M. Laitman: Because this is actually the main condition that if we were able to keep it, then we wouldn't feel all of the other questions. Ultimately, only out of the fact that we cannot keep love your friend as yourself, all of the questions come.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:32) He writes, and the concealment is only for the created beings to receive the good and abundance without shame. I thought you said unpreventable?

M. Laitman: What?

Student: The shame, that the creature who feels the good and delight feels shame?

M. Laitman: So, he cannot receive, he cannot enjoy. 

Student: Yes, but he has to feel it, once?

M. Laitman: Yes, that is true. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:17) He says, specifically, freedom, when you are in an ascent, you have to prepare yourself for the descent, for the state?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: How does that relate to self-annulment? He says, this, specifically, gives me self-annulment and the correct attitude toward the Creator?

M. Laitman: Because during an ascent you are able, along with the fact that you're in this state with the power you have in that state, you can annul yourself, annul your ego. 

Student: What is the Creator trying to show me here? That I seemingly need the Creator's help, and without the Creator, without the environment, I can't take even a step forward? 

M. Laitman: Yes, that you should not think, during the ascent, that the ascent that you have is because of your own power, no. This is what you receive from the Creator.

Student: When I'm in an ascent, and many times I'm in an ascent. I think this is it, I'm only with my own power, my own will?

M. Laitman: This is the worst.

Student: I know, but how to prepare ourselves correctly so that all the time we will prepare ourselves the opposite state. We'll understand that we need to have our finger on the pulse, constantly. How can we remain alert? 

M. Laitman: It's only through the environment, only through the environment.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:15) I heard that we need to connect to the friends more in order to be impressed by the need for faith they have. How do we receive faith? 

M. Laitman: Because each one has a need for faith but in a different form. And so, if they connect between them, if they connect the needs of each one, they end up with one complete need, and with that, they turn to the Creator. So, it helps them to connect between them.

Student: Each one has a need for faith in a different way? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What does that mean? 

M. Laitman: I don't know what it means, each one feels this need in a different way.

Student: The connection between us, what does it combine, compose?

M. Laitman: It gives us all in all the general need. 

Student: What is the need for faith? 

M. Laitman: The need for faith, it's the common force with which to bestow to the Creator. 

Student: We can attain faith only with the friends? 

M. Laitman: Yes, you can't do it alone.

Student: This faith is faith above reason?

M. Laitman: Faith. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:19) He writes here in the middle of the article: These people who wish to work because of the importance of the Creator, who always need to increase their faith in the importance of the greatness of the Creator. Only the importance and greatness of the Creator obligates them to observe Torah and Mitzvot in order to achieve adhesion with the Creator. These people must always assume and value the greatness of the Creator. This has given us a description of the correct intention. Then when I look at my work, our work, I see that we speak a lot about the connection between us. The bond between us, the greatness of the friends, perhaps the greatness of the path. How do I connect that to the greatness, the importance of the Creator, as he writes here? Help me see the connection because I don't quite understand. You're teaching us, you've been teaching us for years how to work on the connection and importance between us. Here it says everything needs to work because of the importance of the Creator.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: How do we combine these two things? 

M. Laitman: What is the goal?

Student: The goal is to reach Lishma, adhesion with the Creator.

M. Laitman: How do I see inside this Lishma, the Creator, His greatness, His existence, and myself approaching Him?

Student: That's the question, right, that's what I'm asking. Again, the answer is seemingly in our study. We've been hearing it for years and you're not just teaching it for nothing. Work on the connection between you. But I have this short circuit in my brain between these two things, that's what I'm trying to resolve. It's clear to me that they are related but I can't understand how and what way?

M. Laitman: Fine. We need more questions like that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:08) When we have the descent that the Creator sent us in order to learn. It is written in the article for us to see the difference. How in that state can I remember the greatness of the Creator because I don't know how to discern if this is out of my will to receive, to avoid suffering. Or because of a lack for bestowal, it's not always clear. He says, it's given to you, so you'd ask the Creator to adhere to Him, to remember that. That's a place where it's really difficult to remember this. How specifically there, not to run away from the work but to do the most important work? It's truly there because in the ascent you say, thank you, and you have to remain in adhesion, it's all good. There, how to do the correct work, there? 

M. Laitman: I don't know what to tell you. We need to try to get closer to the Creator with our most inner question. Should we read it again?

Reader: We read the article.

M. Laitman: No, the article, that's obvious. 

Reader: What would you like us to read? 

M. Laitman: The same paragraph from which we came to our questions now. These questions. 

Reader: (01:12:34) So I'm reading the paragraph starting with, “But those who wish to work”, page 881, P1:

Reading: “... But those who wish to work …”

But those who wish to work because of the importance of the Creator, who always need to increase the faith in the importance and the greatness of the Creator, that only the importance and the greatness of the Creator obligates them to observe Torah and Mitzvot in order to achieve Dvekut with the Creator, those people must always assume and value the greatness of the Creator. They must always assess that if they have some grip on spirituality, it is because the Creator is bringing them closer, while they themselves are completely powerless unless they see that they will derive from it some benefit for themselves. It follows that the main work is to annul himself. Yet, this is against nature; only by His salvation can they achieve it.

M. Laitman: Is that clear? To annul oneself benefit, that is what a person needs to understand, that is the place. And if he annuls it, cancels it, so then, the Creator can be revealed in any measure that He needs to, that He wants to.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:14:44) In the same section that we just read, there's this sentence about just feeling a little spirituality. What does it mean?

M. Laitman: Illumination. Not actual light but like a distant illumination.

Student: What comes together with this illumination? What kind of insight, do you feel the Giver of the illumination, what is the illumination?

M. Laitman: No, no, what he feels that’s a man starts to feel, and recognizes that there the Creator needs to be, and he starts coming closer to Him.

Student: This little feeling, is it something that the person did not have before? 

M. Laitman: No. 

Student: Is it something new, a suddenly that he might get?

M. Laitman: No, it wasn't there.

Student: It connects with this thing called, Creator?

M. Laitman: Right. 

Student: It's very clear to a person?

M. Laitman: It's not very clear. It's a feeling; gradually it comes out from the fog. Okay? That’s it. We need to make it tangible. I'm not strong at this.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:16:30) What does it mean that the serpent wants the Providence to be open, to be revealed, transparent? How is that expressed in the person? 

M. Laitman: The will to receive wants to reveal the Creator to a person in a revealed way. That he's right there standing before a person. 

Student: Just like a reception is revealed when I receive, the serpent wants also the Creator's bestowal to be revealed? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: The sin is by the bestowal of the Creator being revealed to him, openly? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Meaning It happened once?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:17) We just read an excerpt that a person has to be holy, to adhere to the holy, and leaves himself. What is the connection between being holy and leaving himself? 

M. Laitman: I didn't understand, say it again. No, you say again, translate, again.

Translator: The question was, what is the connection between being holy and leaving himself? 

M. Laitman: That's one of the conditions to be holy. That a person disconnects from himself, from his will to receive.

Student: The basis is annulment? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: How do we come from that state to being holy?

M. Laitman: Holy, means that he is disconnected from everything. He's not dependent on anything, that's called, holy. That's why a person that can keep away from all the desires to receive in him reaches a degree of ‘holy’.

Student: If I have completely disconnected from myself, what do I attain, then? 

M. Laitman: You can't ask what you attain, because, by this, you already stop being holy. 

Student: I need to let go of myself without having the idea what happens? I have to leave myself without any idea what will happen as a result?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Reader: We have the article, “Remembering” by Baal HaSulam or “Shara HaKavanot”, Gate of Intentions for Passover. 

M. Laitman: Okay, well, let's advance. We have not much.

Question (New York 2): (01:20:59) You said in the beginning that ascents and descents should come simultaneously. Can we say that the work in a descent on the greatness of the goal, this is the ascent?

M. Laitman: As much as we are in ascents and descents, along with that we need to value in all these states also what's revealed to us.

Question (Latin 13): (01:21:48) When a person is in a descent and justifies the Creator, is he by this annulling the Creator? Because, sometimes, I feel like all the descents come from Him, then if I justify Him one hundred percent. The question is, is this the meaning of being annulled before the Creator? 

M. Laitman: No, in the descents I don't attain annulment of the Creator. In the descents, I attain my ego as much as is influenced by what it receives. That's why I call those states descents. 

Student: He’s asking if by justifying the Creator during the descents, by this,  is it already annulment before the Creator, by the fact that he justifies the Creator? 

M. Laitman: No, he enters those states because the Creator does it like that, the Creator lowers Him. And not that he himself.

Student: The minute a person realizes that it's the Creator who does it to him, is there an annulment in this already? 

M. Laitman: On behalf of the person, no, not yet. 

Student: What is the work from the moment he understands that the Creator is doing this to him?

M. Laitman: His work is to lower himself, that he's willing to receive everything. Everything that comes from the Creator, he's willing to receive it as whole. 

Question (W Latin 26): (01:24:18) According to the last paragraph in the article, when he says it's impossible to understand the light unless from within the darkness. Therefore, all the questions are precisely due in the freedom. She's asking, what does it mean that all the questions come precisely at the time of freedom? 

M. Laitman: Then, we can really see the correct picture, and see ourselves and the Creator in the right relation between us. Meaning it becomes clear to us, that's why the state itself is called ‘freedom’.

Question (Zafon 1): (01:25:20) Most people don't appreciate the good that they have in their lives. The Creator illuminated a point in our heart and brought us to a group that studies Kabbalah. We don't appreciate what a huge gift we received from the Creator because we are still governed by Pharaoh, king of Egypt. When will we be able to appreciate that opposite from the seventy nations of the world, we've been given the work of the Creator? 

M. Laitman: When we get there, for now, we're not Israel, and we're not incorporated with the seventy nations of the world in the right way. We will still need to reach it. 

Question (Türkiye 7): (01:26:40) We are trying to understand the greatness of the Providence of the Creator in our reality with intellectual questions. When we can't understand, intellectually, comes faith. Is this is really the way we advance, how can we accelerate our advancement? 

M. Laitman: Yes, we can in such a way.

Student: How can we accelerate it? 

M. Laitman: Accelerated by the connection between you, only by the connection. Everything is in your hands. 

Question (Holland): (01:28:01) What is the main purpose and meaning of borrowing the vessels of the Egyptians? 

M. Laitman: Without the vessels, what can you do, you have to have vessels. Vessels are the deficiencies to receiving the light, to connecting to the Creator, to bestowing to the Creator. If you don't have vessels, you can't bestow. In what will you bestow to the Creator, without vessels, with your hands, empty hands?

Student: What do we do, let’s say we were in the Ten. What are we actually doing when we're borrowing the vessels from the Egyptians? What is the action of borrowing?

M. Laitman: Again, what did he ask?

Student: What is the action of borrowing vessels in the Ten? How do we implement this action in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: We connect, and we scrutinize what the greatest deficiency is. And with it, we turn to the Creator and demand connection. In the connection we get some forces, discernments. We organize our vessel in a more correct way towards the Creator. And in this way, we attain the vessel. That's in a gradual manner.

Question (Latin 2): (01:30:30) If one or several friends are in a descent, and the rest of the Ten are asking that they will be in ascent, that they will come out of the descent. Is this ascent is for everyone and then everyone comes out of the descent because they're busy with everyone's ascent? 

M. Laitman: To the extent that they're incorporated with everybody, connected to everybody, they also ascend from the descent to an ascent. It could be that, before that ,they were very without response and with no new discernments. But now it depends as much as they connect to those who yearn for the ascent. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:31:42) We read that man's main work is to annul himself. Because it's against nature, it's possible only through his salvation. We also heard that the ascents and descents that the Creator takes a person through, doesn't bring him to annul himself. Can we pinpoint man's work so that the Creator will begin to operate on him, so it will bring a person to annul himself? 

M. Laitman: The work of a man is to see oneself ,that he could be under the influence of thousands of forces, but eventually he must connect from these states, through them, to the Creator. And understand that the Creator is his true Source, and only He is always with the man, and only He is destined to bestow to a person. To help him, to save him, and only by praying to the Creator, he can reach that connection. And in this way, exit the depth of his ego.

Student: It's written that this is man's main work so these forces he needs to feel and are operating on him. Is it felt more in the work in the Ten, generally? Or can a person feel this regardless of the work in the Ten?

M. Laitman: No, the work in the Ten is still man's central work, and the general work is also from within the Ten.

Student: If I want to put an emphasis on the matter of annulment, how does the work in the Ten help? Or how should we work so it operates on me, so it begins to cause the Creator to operate on me in this matter of annulment?

M. Laitman: When I aim myself to bestow on society, on my Ten, that they will help me, they will help me exit, exit myself. And to be, not in order to receive, but in order to bestow. To connect to them, “as one man with one heart”, and in this way, as a unit, a Ten, an independent unit, to work.

Student: In the article, there was something confusing. Other than to correct the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, does man have other corrections?

M. Laitman: No.

Student: It says there, that working in the discernment of the Tree of Knowledge it’s only at the end of correction. How can there be any deficiency or any corrections before he receives the sin of the Tree of Knowledge? I’ll ask differently: Does Adam HaRashon have any deficiency before he receives the serpent into him? Did he have any deficiencies or was he in wholeness, did he lack anything?

M. Laitman: Before revealing the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, there's no revelation of evil. There's nothing you need to correct, no.

Student: Is there a need for anything? Not for correction, but for anything?

M. Laitman: There's a need to reveal that fruit and use it.

Student: There is an attraction, Adam HaRashon has an attraction, to touch this fruit?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:37:12) Thank you for this article, it's very beautiful and it talks about the power of faith. I was left with many impressions but one that stuck the most is connection. We talk about connection all the time and this article shows that we cannot connect without faith. That we are constantly given the descents so that we will see that we don't have any strength to bestow. That when we experience the descent, we have to cry to the Creator to give us the power to bestow, which will then, we will reach the point of faith and connect. My question is, is faith the means by which the Creator reaches the purpose of creation?

M. Laitman: Faith isn't a means, you could say, to attain the purpose of creation. But it is a quality that you reach, and in it, you reveal the purpose of creation. It's not a means, it's the quality, itself, that in it the purpose of creation is revealed.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:39:27) I want to make a precision about the question of connection when we work in the Ten: Can we say that we are confused before what to annul to, before the feelings we have for each other? Or before the calculations behind these feelings? The real ego is actually the calculations, it is all kinds of bias or prejudice or preconceptions that I have to annul. That helps me with the questions of who and what, that helps me focus my attention and understand the right new calculation.

M. Laitman: I guess it's like that, I can't really say a hundred percent. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:40:45) The inner question with which we should approach the Creator, is it different for each one?

M. Laitman: Each one experiences it as his own.

Student: What is the question that the Creator expects from us?

M. Laitman: How can we be closest to Him in the maximum way? 

Reader: There are questions from the world Kli, or we can move on to the next part of the lesson.

M. Laitman: Let's go to the next.

Reader: We have the article of “Remembering” or “The Gate of Intentions”.

M. Laitman: So, let's do “Remembering” first.

Reader: (01:42:17) We'll move to the next part of the lesson. Before that, we'll sing a song together.