The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) May 14, 2025.
Part 2: Preparation to Convention – Connecting to There Is None Else Besides Him
Lesson 3: If I Am Not for Me, Who Is for Me? #1
Reader: Hello, friends, we continue our preparation for the World Kabbalah Convention, Connecting to None Else Besides Him, May 2025. Today we're going to start studying from the third lesson of the Congress, titled, If I am Not For Me, Who Is For Me? You can also send your questions through our website, so the third lesson in the Congress, If I am Not For Me, Who Is?
Reading: (00:51) 1. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 16
I have already said in the name of the Baal Shem Tov that prior to making a Mitzva [commandment], one must not consider private Providence at all. On the contrary, one should say, “If I am not for me, who is for me?” But after the fact, one must reconsider and believe that it was not by “My power and the might of my hand” that I did the Mitzva, but only by the power of the Creator, who contemplated so about me in advance, and so I had to do.
It is likewise in worldly matters because spirituality and corporeality are equal. Therefore, before one goes out to make one’s daily bread, he should remove his thoughts from private Providence and say, “If I am not for me, who is?” He should do all the tactics applied in corporeality to earn his living as do others.
But in the evening, when he returns home with his earnings, he must never think that he has earned this profit by his own innovations. Rather, even if he stayed all day in the basement of his home, he would still have earned his pay, for so the Creator contemplated for him in advance, and so it had to be.
Although the matters look the contrary on the surface, and are unreasonable, one must believe that so the Creator has determined for him in His law, from authors and from books.
This is the meaning of the unification of HaVaYaH Elokim [God]. HaVaYaH means private Providence, where the Creator is everything, and He does not need dwellers of material houses to help Him. Elokim in Gematria is HaTeva [the nature], where man behaves according to the nature that He instilled in the systems of the corporeal heaven and earth, and he keeps those rules as do the rest of the corporeal beings. And yet, he also believes in HaVaYaH, meaning in private Providence.
By this he unites them with one another, and “they became as one in his hand.” In this way, he brings great contentment to his Maker and brings illumination in all the worlds.
This is the meaning of the three discernments—commandment, transgression, and permission. The commandment is the place of Kedusha [holiness], the transgression is the place of the Sitra Achra [other side], and permission, which is neither a Mitzva nor a transgression, is the place over which the Kedusha and the Sitra Achra fight.
When a person does permitted things but does not dedicate them to Kedusha, that entire place falls into the domain of the Sitra Achra. And when a person grows stronger and engages in permitted things to make unifications as much as he can, he returns the permission into the domain of Kedusha.
M. Laitman: We can see from here that everything comes to us straight from the Creator. And there is no other force along the way who can appear here. Hence, our work is entirely to see in everything that is taking place the upper force working on us, and that's it; and all of our work is only in that. Although there are many forces that are working on us, we don't take it into consideration. We understand that this is also the desire of the Creator, so that's how we take them into consideration.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:03) Like you said before, you also teach us that every action must start with intention for the Creator, to feel Him. But here, we as if start the opposite, before doing the Mitzvah, one should not think of private Providence. On the contrary, one should say, if I'm not for me, who is for me? So, what exactly is the intention not to – what is the meaning not, one must not consider Providence at all before the Mitzvah?
M. Laitman: Not to think in private Providence means that I don't accept at all what we're learning, what we're discussing, what we're talking about. Rather, what's important to me is myself, me, myself. What is myself, what is the I? It's what the Creator did in me in order to understand Him from within me.
Student: And private Providence that in the end, he does need to say that. What does he need to relate to the Providence that is what? Because it's Good that that's Good? That's what he needs to say that in any case; he would receive good from the Creator? What does it mean, private Providence, ultimately, after the Mitzvah?
M. Laitman: Private Providence is truly aimed at a person and only. And everything else besides that are different forces that He places before a person in order to give him the sensation of reward and punishment so that a person will see himself as existing in this world, a great, big world full of forces.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:06) Why can't a person relate the corporeal deed to the Creator only after the deed, and not before or during?
M. Laitman: He must make a calculation wherever he is, what is working on him, how does he relate to what's working on him? So that his attitude to the power that's operating on him will be, as much as possible, independent of anything.
Student: When a person performs a corporeal action, he feels that he is under his own authority. And then, so, how does he work in a corporeal action in such a state that it will also be spiritual?
M. Laitman: He needs to work like they tell us that if not for me, who is for me?
Student: How does a person work correctly? Well, sorry for asking again because you already answered. But how to work correctly in a corporeal deed when you feel that right now there is a disconnection from the Creator? He sent you to a corporeal action.
M. Laitman: So, the person has to make all sorts of calculations with the purpose of bringing the Creator back to the center of creation. And only in that manner can he reach any contact with the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:10) What does it mean that a person needs to unite everything to the authority of holiness?
M. Laitman: That, all in all, what operates, well, it's the Creator operating – the upper force – and He arranges, organizes all forces of nature activating them towards the person.
Student: He also compares between corporeality and spirituality, and he says that they're equal to one another. When a person starts his day, more or less he knows what he should profit from that day. A person on the path of the Creator, what's the reward he's expecting? What is he expecting to receive every day?
M. Laitman: A person should be thinking about that, calculating, feeling it. Feeling what he's drawn towards, by what he can fulfill himself.
Student: How can a person check himself at the end of the day that he really didn't leave anything for his own? He started from “if not for me, who is for me?” How, at the end of the day does he know that he ascribed everything to the Creator and he's in the Creator's reality?
M. Laitman: Again?
Student: He says, a person has to begin every day from “if not for me, who is for me.” How does he know at the end of the day, and not the end of the day, after an action, that he passed it to the Creator, that he's in the Creator's reality, that he's not “and if not for me, who is for me?”, he passed it to the reality of the Creator, His action?
M. Laitman: That is according to the attainment of the unity of the Creator over all the actions that have been performed.
Student: But how can he check that he is left with nothing, that he looked at the actions he did, and he doesn't feel that anything of that was on his own behalf, it all happened on the other side. You have to reach that state, right? To really feel that it all came from Him. So, how can he check himself at the end of the day that he passed to the other side?
M. Laitman: That's exactly the answer to the question, if there's no one for me, or rather if I'm not for myself, who will be for me? And for that, with that, a person needs to start his day and end his day.
Student: Also, end the day with “if not for me, who is for me?”
M. Laitman: Yes, in total, what we receive, what we accept, is the commandment of choice. And so, all of our work should be around how to scrutinize the Creator. How, other than just being the Good Who Does Good, He's also giving us the opportunity to study our place within creation. And as we engage in that research on a daily basis, yes. So, we scrutinize where exactly the Creator's place in creation is and where we adhere to Him.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:50) I wrote, you said that “me” is what the Creator made in me, that from this I can understand Him. What is the desired response from that “I,” from the self that discovers that the Creator made him?
M. Laitman: That he wants to be in unity with the Creator. And, in that unification, to attain “if I'm not for me, then who is for me?”
Student: The Creator, that feeling of the self, put on a lot of other forces. So, what is their purpose? Why do I need all those other forces around, except for the Creator and the material He's working on?
M. Laitman: The person needs to organize the whole of reality in such a way, where everything is directed towards the revelation of the Creator.
Student: How do you relate to the other forces from that point without getting confused, without them dragging a person into it?
M. Laitman: The person has to orient himself very precisely, in accordance with the root of his soul, towards the Creator. And so, to walk forward and solve all the problems.
Student: When he turns to the Creator, he sees that the Creator put a lot of forces, seemingly, that are working on him.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: If he already relates to those forces, so the Creator is, supposedly, lost. How do you take aid from them and not get lost because of them?
M. Laitman: You are aided by them, and specifically through them, the unity of the upper force is scrutinized. That's how we do it, how we try to do it, the choice is all about that. That from all the forces of nature, I'm always trying to scrutinize – who it is that I'm following?
Student: Maybe closer to a person – he feels, and he's sensitive, and his heart is drawn after things that work on him. He has honor, he has all kinds of desires that are working very strong. So, the connection to the Creator has to be a lot stronger than all that.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: That He will be leading, and a person won't fall into all kinds of other things. How do you make such a connection that is stronger than all the other things that a person feels that are working on him?
M. Laitman: That's what the person must study – research –, to see what forces operate within him, and what he's attracted towards. And which force, out of all these forces, which force does he want to adhere to?
Student: So, it's a force from all those forces? Or is it something, is it the source of all those forces?
M. Laitman: The source? You could say that, but how realistic is it?
Student: So, that's the question, how do you turn the Creator into more realistic than the forces that are working on a person's feelings, desires, lusts? More than everything, that He will be more tangible than them.
M. Laitman: If a person is preoccupied with that question, then he's opening up the Creator, more and more. He's facing Him and that's how he attains Him.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:58) Why does a person need to annul private Providence, and act as if, as if there's no Creator, as if it all depends on him?
M. Laitman: Because that's what's really happening in reality with respect to the person. The Creator arranged everything; the Creator surrounds everything.
Student: The Creator surrounds everything and arranges everything, so why does a person need to cancel that and say there's no Creator, if not for me, who is for me?
M. Laitman: That is in order to check what his real place is, and how He is at the center of creation.
Student: But he doesn't really cancel None Else Besides Him because in the background, he still knows there's Providence, and he acts as if I'm going out to work, and I'm doing something. The knowledge that at the end of the day, He did everything.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, how does a person, with “if not for me, who is for me,” how does he do it in a pure manner?
M. Laitman: In a pure manner, I’m not sure we can get there.
Student: So, what's first to perform the commandment that you don't think of private Providence? On the contrary, one should say, “if I am not for me, who is for me?” So just to say those words, or is there such a reality?
M. Laitman: There exists such a reality where a person reaches such a state where “if I am not for me, then who is for me?”
Student: And what is that state?
M. Laitman: It's a state in which a person is willing to be under private Providence.
Student: And we say, “if not for me, who is for me?” So, who's “me?”
M. Laitman: The person.
Student: What is that commandment of choice that a person has to do in that state?
M. Laitman: He chooses by his actions to disconnect from the Creator, supposedly, acting supposedly as if he's alone, alone in determining reality.
Student: On one hand, in every moment we say to adhere to the Creator in relation to Him, not to let go of None Else Besides Him. On the other hand, we're expecting of me every action to disconnect from the Creator, as if I'm alone in reality.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, this contradiction doesn't settle in me yet. What am I needed, to adhere to the Creator every moment or to disconnect and feel that I'm doing something else?
M. Laitman: What is expected of you is to discover the world as being under the rule of the Creator. And you should want to see Him at the center of creation, and that is done by your free choice.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:57) The world of reasons, cause and consequence, they both exist – there's the world of causes and the world of consequence. With Baal HaSulam example, you wake up in the morning – there's only “if not for me who is for me.” And in the evening, say that even though I wouldn't have done it, I'll get what the Creator has prepared for me. So, it's not right, though, I never understood that's what you do, I have to do everything needed to do, otherwise it won't happen. And as I go, I have to go into the deeper level and to understand that there's an upper force, and to be connected to Him, that's the right approach. And here in the article, he says that there's this approach of faith. I don't even get it. What does that mean?
M. Laitman: We’ll clarify it.
Student: Could it be that in the recorded lesson we watched before you came, we were talking about what the Rambam writes, that for women and children, we gradually discover the secret. First, you kind of deceive them, so is that a lie? This analogy of waking up in the morning and only in the end really get what you would have gotten?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: So, how does it work, there's no explanation to this? Kind of like what the friend asked about, I don't even understand how to start implementing it, because if I won't wake up, there won't be any food. So, if it's an additional interaction, why they even do it, why not to just say, in addition to work, I have to attain the Creator? It doesn't contradict; it's like a contradiction that isn't clear.
M. Laitman: Alright, we'll think about it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:55) Only when a person determines himself that everything came from Him, then he can also feel that he's not in this state, and it's really a flaw, a transgression. He will really feel not good from this, that he's not in this state. How can a person feel that he's really in a transgression?
M. Laitman: Transgression? Meaning violating the commandment?
Student: Yes.
M. Laitman: That is a question, yes, because it has to do with Providence. I understand. All right, let's leave that for now.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:01) You could say that the “I,” in “if not for me, who is for me”, that's what defines that only the Creator exists?
M. Laitman: You want to define the “me”?
Student: I'm trying to understand, “if not for me, who is for me?” We say that still, He governs everything so that person that needs to exert throughout the day.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Supposedly, the exertion is to crown the Creator above him?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Because what we go through throughout the day, it's like necessities. You have to exert in them anyway, so that's not what we're talking about, right?
M. Laitman: No.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:12) All the same point: In None Else Besides Him, Baal HaSulam says that even if a person thinks that he himself thought one thing and now he's thinking a different thing, that's already a transgression. Even if he thinks that there are forces of the other side, that's already a transgression. That’s None Else Besides Him, everything, including himself, he has described to the Creator. And with None Else Besides Him, he says – no, before the commandment, let go of everything, only you exist. Everything depends on you. So, how do those two ends, what do those two ends give you? That a person wants this and this, wants that, what does it give him? What discernment is born of this?
M. Laitman: He receives the outcome of these two forces: He sees what could there be in nature. On the one hand, There's None Else Besides Him. And on the other hand, if there is no one for me, then who? If I'm not for me, then who is for me?
Student: I understand that it's two sides that are very clear and opposite. So, what do those two ends give you? He's not saying that there's like a – he says there's None Else Besides Him, and if not for me, who is for me? And from both of them, something has to be born.
M. Laitman: “Not for me, who is for me”, that speaks of the person. That's how he thinks to begin with. There's None Else Besides Him, that's what he attains in the same place where before he had “if not for me, who is for me?”, and that's how he advances.
Student: Where is the connection between them because then again, he has to let go of None Else Besides Him. And again, say “if not for me, who is for me?”
M. Laitman: Let's say.
Student: Because that's life, because every time he has to renew himself.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, what in the end remains? Once this, once that. What remains from the true connection to the Creator?
M. Laitman: He truly tries, in all the actions that come to him, in all of them, he tries to reach adhesion.
Student: What is that adhesion, “None Else Besides Him”, “if not for me who is for me?”, or something born of both? What is the adhesion?
M. Laitman: Both.
Student: That they're both in the reality together
M. Laitman: Yes. Otherwise, he cannot determine.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:02) Could we say that the simple answer is, in simple words, as the friend asked, that “if not for me, who is for me” is to bring a deficiency, because without a deficiency, without no vessel, there's no light. And None Else Besides Him is the light, that's the basic process in everything. That's how it's connected to life. You create a deficiency, then comes a fulfillment and again. Could we say that?
M. Laitman: What you say is the solution. But until we actually reach it, that takes a long time.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:04) In a different place, he writes that a sick person has to go to the doctor to get a medicine. After he heals, he has to thank the Creator. Why in this world, in our physical world, what's the purpose? Why is it so important that in the physical action? That the person has to go receive treatment and then by that, he connects the Creator into, he connects himself to the Creator? Why is it so important, what's its purpose?
M. Laitman: What's important, here, is that the person gains some form of connection between himself and the Creator; and he accepts that form of connection as a foundation.
Student: So, every physical action, every purpose in this world is making a connection with the Creator? And if he lies in bed all day and doesn't do anything, he's missing out on the connection with the Creator?
M. Laitman: Maybe so, maybe not. We're not talking about just lying in bed but about the extent to which he will accept it.
Student: So, it depends on a person that this life will give him a connection with the Creator, no matter what he does?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:10) Is it right to think that without “if not for me, who is for me,” there's nothing to give to the Creator?
M. Laitman: It is true.
Student: So, could it be that these two states is a person's dialogue with the Creator? The language of their relationships?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, both those parts are necessary.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:16) In this dialogue with the Creator that we're constantly working, living our life and He teaches us little lessons every time. Everything I feel is like a lesson from the Creator. He teaches me about myself in order to come closer to Him. It's felt that it's a lot of information, if you're sensitive to it, you see, it doesn't stop. It's like an endless stream that the Creator is broadcasting and sometimes it's hard to take the load. I'm trying to understand what of this information that the Creator is constantly sending, what to focus on in order to advance spiritually and not just get confused. How do I take the information of what I feel and make the most efficient, precise work to what the Creator is sending to me?
M. Laitman: And this is what we're talking about, this is what we're talking about. How, if a person reasons that he's inside a sea of actions – the Creator's actions – then it's certain that if he does not let go of their source, he will reach the outcome.
Student: So, not to be afraid that I feel that I'm in this big ocean, not to restrict it?
M. Laitman: No, no, to the contrary, the opposite. The more you try to connect to that sea that you're in. The closer you'll get to the revelation of and the understanding of the Creator.
Student: So, it's like to actually live life as if you're in an endless shower of the Creator. Not to be afraid that it's a lot of information but to toss yourself into that feeling and to let the water just drench you all the time?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And from this, in brackets, overload, something clear will come out of it?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:18) Let's say I succeeded and I walk around all day that in everything that's happening, I connected to the Creator. He is the source, He is the cause, He's conducting me, directing me, and so on. How by that did I perform any correction towards my friends in the Ten?
M. Laitman: To begin with, you were inclined to perform that action as something that includes everyone, belongs to everyone, and everyone are sharing that goal, altogether.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:26) I want to continue the friend: I heard you saying that a person receives some form of connection between him and the Creator and that has to be my foundation every day, every moment. How do I connect this article to our work in the Ten?
M. Laitman: I want for the connection between us to bring us to the final, the ultimate form of connection. And towards that, I pull all things, all conditions, that appear before me.
Student: So, all the conditions that the Creator is bringing me are here between us and between the friends. They are my reception system, that the Creator wants me, myself to correct it in front of Him?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: On the way here every morning, I hear None Else Besides Him, I listen to the article on the way here. And He says there that the Creator purposely deviates us from the path every time – He does it on purpose. So, why does He do it on purpose? What does He want to show us? “If not for me, who is for me?” in this work, that I'll come back to holiness every time? What's the work the Creator gives us every time?
M. Laitman: That we will find Him out of and within every confusion that we discover, that's all.
Student: How He deviates me from the path every time? How do I do it before the friends, I also see it in the friends, more than once? How do I actually ascribe it to the Creator in the end? That that's the reality of holiness, that I don't only have to bring myself in there but the whole Ten, to bring us there all together, to holiness, to the only purpose, to discover the Creator between us, that force. How do we do it constantly and renew it because He says I have to do the effort? What effort do we have to keep renewing to be there? To be right next to Him all the time?
M. Laitman: The efforts to make room for the Creator between us. That is everything we need, that's it. That the Creator will dwell among us, between us.
Student: That we give Him a place to dwell between us, so that's when each one annuls before the Ten and to uplift above our will to receive?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:25) When a person makes the effort before every action to determine that “if not from you, it's from me.” And like you said, supposedly disconnect himself from the Creator. Is there a place for prayer here? Or should a person disconnect himself from the ability to pray, the possibility to pray?
M. Laitman: How is that?
Student: That's the question because “if not from me, who is from me,” I'm supposedly making an effort that there's no Creator, that only I'm working.
M. Laitman: I don't understand what you're saying.
Student: Okay, let's say I, before an action, I forcefully have to determine that if I won't do the action, nobody will do it instead of me. And there's no Creator; I'm supposedly disconnecting myself from Him and saying that I have to do the action.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, the prayer to the Creator, it's still, it's a connection with Him. So, is there a place to ask, to pray, to the Creator and ask for help, even to do an action? If not for me, who is for me?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, there is a place for prayer?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, the action “if not for me, who is for me, it's like I clear out the area for my independent action, right? Now, at the end of the day, when I have to determine that there's nothing else besides it, so that same area I cleared, I have to again clear it out of myself and give that area to the Creator.
M. Laitman: Well, let's say.
Student: And then there's a place for There is None Else Besides Him. You can't determine that There's None Else Besides Him, if before that, I didn't do an action of “if not for me, who is for me” One is connected to the other.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:24) We learn that the correction is in two stages: First, vessels of bestowal, then we correct vessels of reception in order to bestow.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: A question: Going out into the market, that's working with the vessels of reception? Or does that belong?
M. Laitman: It is work with the vessels of reception.
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