The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) June 4, 2024.
Part 1: Rabash. Letter 18.
Reader: Hello, we're reading Letter 18 by Rabash. You can find the letter in the system, in the study materials, or also directly on our website. You can ask questions through the Galaxy system, the Arvut system, or through our websites. Anyone who is 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 Letter 18: (00:36)
To the friends, may they live long:
I have received the letters of… and the rest of the friends are idle in their writing, since they think that there can’t be any profits from correspondence, because they doubt that there can be any profits from correspondence. This brings up the question, “What can bring profits?” Some think that they already have answers to all their questions. In that case, what need is there for questions, because the answers are already placed in a box for them, and all they need is to do what they already know.
Or one who implies that he still needs to correct his bad qualities, so what does he mean by that? Does he think to notify me that he regrets this day and night, meaning that for him it is as in, “And my sin is ever before me,” meaning that he is always worried and concerned about this, and other concerns do not occupy him? If this was his intention, I would enjoy it very much.
Still, it is written, “A concern in one’s heart let him speak of it with others.” And since the festival of Shavuot is approaching, and we need much preparation to be rewarded with the giving of the Torah, I will bring here some words in the name of my father.
This matter is brought in the article, “The Arvut” (“Mutual Guarantee”), and these are its words, “Now if you obey My voice indeed and you will be My virtue from among all the nations, for all the earth is Mine and you will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” I will not elaborate on the questions, but the main thing that is explained there is that through the people of Israel, who are more capable than all the nations to approach the Creator, He will then bestow the abundance upon the rest of the nations.
Therefore, know my friends that since we were together with Baal HaSulam we are more capable of approaching the Creator, but we need to listen to his voice and to keep his covenant, for the voice of the living ARI [Baal HaSulam] will certainly not stop from us. As we were near him, he is certainly speaking on our behalf, and his voice is heard when he comes into the holy place. When a person approaches Kedusha (holiness), his voice is heard and we are certain to succeed.
This is the meaning of “For the sake of my brothers and friends I will say, ‘let peace be in you.’” This means that precisely because of the brotherhood and friendship “I will speak peace.” Otherwise they would be speaking in disputes and quarrels.
The interpreters interpreted that “I will say, let peace be in you’” refers to Jerusalem. We should understand according to our way. Jerusalem is called the “heart of the world,” and in the soul, Jerusalem is called the “heart of man,” meaning man’s desire is called Jerusalem, and there is a dispute there, meaning the desires of the nations of the world, from which man is made, and there are desires of Israel there and each wants to rule over the other.
It turns out that within the heart, called Jerusalem, desires quarrel and collide with one another and at that time no one rules. Naturally no one can acquire his wholeness. This is the meaning of what Rabba said, “I beg of you, do not inherit the gate of Hell. That is, there is sufferings from both the corporeal desires and from the spiritual desires.
This is applied to students who begin to enter the work of the Creator. Since none can show his full force, they are as broken vessels, meaning desires that come from the shattering, in which sparks of holiness were mingled called sparks of bestowal within the Klipot [shells] which are called “sparks of reception.”
But, “For the sake of my brothers and friends,” meaning because the purpose of creation was to do good to His creations, and in a place of hatred it is inappropriate for the light of the Creator, called “light of love,” to appear. “I will say, ‘let peace be in you,’” where “in you” means that inside the heart there will be peace. It is as in, “The Creator desires to dwell in the lower ones,” meaning to be with the lower ones in love, brotherhood, and friendship, for the lower ones to attain the light of the Creator, as it is written “I will listen to what God will speak, for He will speak peace unto His people and unto His pious ones and let them not turn back to folly.”
Meaning when we hear the voice of the Creator speaking to the heart, as in “He who comes to purify is aided,” and it was interpreted in the holy Zohar that he is aided by a holy soul, meaning that the heart hears the voice of the Creator and then specifically the voice of holiness receives the governance over all the desires, meaning the desire to bestow. And naturally, they will not turn back to folly, meaning he will not sin again because all the desires of reception have surrendered under the desire to bestow.
At that time all the good pleasantness appears on the heart, for then there is room in the heart for the instilling of the Shechina (Divinity), and the gentleness and pleasantness, and flavor and friendship spread, and fill up all of man’s organs.
This applies specifically when hearing the voice of the Creator. At that time the whole body surrenders and enslaves itself to holiness. At that time the body becomes a slave serving the holiness. But when not rewarded with hearing the voice of the Creator, we see otherwise, as the verse says, “You give us as flock for food” (Psalms 44), meaning all the desires of holiness are as food swallowed by the will to receive.
“His enemies take their spoil for themselves,” meaning that the will to receive takes all the energy that was intended for holiness; it takes it for itself, meaning if sometimes one can engage in Torah and work, it takes from that all the energy and we work without any rhyme or reason. “And you scattered us among the nations,” meaning that all the forces of bestowal were scattered under the governance of reception, which are called “nations.”
“You sell your people cheaply,” meaning that even though there is no pleasure in the work of reception, still. If we have to perform an act of bestowal, there is no energy because they are the rulers. “And have not profited by their sale” means that we need not enjoy while doing corporeal things, but even when there is a glimpse of hope that there might be some benefit for the receiver then there is already energy to work. And it is likewise to the contrary: If there is any shadow of hope that some Mitzva [good deed] will come out of it, then the receiver is in control.
The concealment is so great that anything that is Lo Lishma [not for Her sake] can be done, and something that is Lishma [for Her sake] is so loathsome and base and despicable that he rejects that thought outward with all his might because man’s nature cannot tolerate something lowly.
This is the meaning of, “You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and derision to those around us.” That is, the will to receive called the “nations that live near us,” meaning in the heart, these nations mock and deride the work of Lishma with all kinds of mockery until we are powerless against them.
It follows that all of one’s efforts are to be favored by the Creator and to try to hear the voice of the Creator who said, “For the sake of my brothers and friends I will say, ‘let peace be in you.’” The voice of the Creator that we were rewarded with hearing while being together with the voice of the living ARI, he is certainly exerting on our behalf.
All we need is to be standing guard so we will know our approaching bad situation, so we do not ask the Creator for luxuries, but simply a life of holiness and “he who comes to purify is aided.”
By that we will understand the words, “A cane and a loaf tied to each other were given from heaven.” We should ask, “Do they not contradict one another?”
The thing is that a “cane” means suffering. A cane is only to tyrannize, which is suffering, and a “loaf” is pleasure. This means that a person is rewarded with two things together, meaning feeling the taste of suffering while working Lo Lishma, meaning for purpose of receiving, and tastes pleasure when engaging for the purpose of bestowal, and then the words “Let them not turn back to folly,” will come true.
Signing with a blessing and may we be rewarded with the reception of the Torah.
Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag,
Son of Baal HaSulam
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:14) What are the conditions to hear the Creator's voice speaking to the heart?
Student: Again, what are the conditions for hearing the Creator's voice that speaks to the heart?
M. Laitman: To be in some giving to the Creator as the Creator is giving to him. Otherwise, he won't be able to hear, and he also won't be able to answer.
Student: What does it mean to hear the Creator's voice? What is the Creator's voice?
M. Laitman: The voice of the Creator, it's the upper light that works on a person, expanding his vessels and filling them.
Student: And what is there to give to the Creator?
M. Laitman: These vessels. Well, to give himself.
Student: He also writes that one of the conditions is to try to be favorable in the eyes of the Creator. How's a person favorable in the eyes of the Creator?
M. Laitman: In that he yearns towards him, towards the Creator, and he wants to be similar to Him. There is no more.
Student: And who hears the voice of the Creator? Man or does the Ten hear it?
M. Laitman: The voice of the Lord, of the Creator? Creator hears it, the person, and the Ten. Well, that's it for now.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:47) He begins the article by saying, or he asks the friend, you're concerned all the time and regretful for the correction of the bad measures, qualities, and still he says that if you have some kind of problem, speak of it to others. What is this state?
M. Laitman: It's that he is concerned in his heart about the corrections, and this concern supports and helps the others that are with him to reach the purpose, the connection.
Student: So, it's a kind of an inner conversation that a person has with his friends.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: He doesn't need to come up to the friends and tell them, this and this worries me.
M. Laitman: No, it's inside.
Student: Now, what exactly is the concern about that he turns it to the friends internally?
M. Laitman: That he will not be able to connect with the friends, and thus they will not have a vessel to receive the Creator's appeal to them.
Student: And in that, he somewhat becomes like the Creator, or he cares for the friends as does the Creator?
M. Laitman: Apparently so, yes.
Student: Now, this care, this concern, is it gladdening, or what is it?
M. Laitman: It depends on the state of the person, but I think it should make him happy, along with the fact that it is a concern.
Student: It's gladdening because it's a good state, he identifies that it's something good?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:59) He, as I understand, criticizes the friends in that they do not correspond with him, don't write him letters, and they as if ask themselves, what benefit can they get from asking the Rav questions now, because they think that they already have an answer to all of their questions, and if so, what need is there for questions? It's like all of the answers lay in a box, and the only thing they have left to do is to carry out what they already know. What do you do in this kind of situation?
M. Laitman: What to do in such a state? Each one should try to show the other how much he is yearning for adhesion with the Creator.
Student: Is this situation relevant to us, too?
M. Laitman: Why not? It can happen in any state.
Student: Suppose what? There is a student in the world Kli saying, what do I need to ask Rav questions for? I know the answer anyway, so the only thing I need is to only realize, so I won't ask.
M. Laitman: No, why? He should ask. He should participate and reveal the deficiencies in him.
Student: So that's the preferable state, but what Rabash, his criticism about the friends that aren't corresponding, is that why should I ask the Rav questions if I already know the answers? That's not a good state. Why?
M. Laitman: Because he doesn't open his connection with the Creator.
Student: By asking Rav questions?
M. Laitman: By not asking.
Student: A student sitting here, I want to talk about our state, here, now, morning lesson.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: He has questions.
M. Laitman: So he should ask.
Student: But he also thinks that he has the answers.
M. Laitman: Nevertheless, he should also care for the others, because by this, there is a connection between the students, between the friends.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:23) Sometimes in the article he speaks in singular, sometimes in plural. And he says that, in plural, that we need to stand guard, to know the bad, approaching state, and not to ask the Creator for any luxuries but only a life of holiness.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What does it mean? What are we missing out on in our prayers, and our pleas, requests? How do we pinpoint it? What is a life of holiness?
M. Laitman: We're not yearning. We're not drawn to a life of holiness. A life of holiness means that I am in the desire to bestow, and I want to open my heart and all of myself more and more to the desire to bestow, and in this way to get closer to the Creator. This is what a person wants to happen to him.
Student: Is it the individual work of each and every person?
M. Laitman: Yes, of course.
Student: How can a Ten help a person to be directed toward that and not ask for luxuries?
M. Laitman: Each one in the Ten should give a good example and support so that in such a way they want to advance, and this is the path.
Student: He says that in man's heart there are two types of desires. Suppose reception and bestowal that are in a kind of struggle between them, and he needs to ask for there to be peace between them. And later he says that peace isn't what I thought. Peace is that the desires of reception will subdue to the desires of bestowal. Why is this state called peace?
M. Laitman: Because we're always in a state where our desires to receive want to rise, and jump, and control, and pull everything to them. And so, first of all, we should be concerned that the desires to bestow will have a greater importance than the desires to receive, and the desires to receive will give the desires to bestow the possibility to rule.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:24) He writes toward the end of the article about the natural state that because the concealment is so great, then you can do everything that is not Lishma, and anything which is Lishma is repugnant because man's nature cannot absorb something lowly. And on the other hand, at the end he says that man merits many things, and he feels suffering when he works Lo Lishma and feels pleasure when he works for the sake of bestowal. How does this happen? Reception is natural. How does it suddenly invert, and he starts getting pleasure from bestowal and suffering from reception? How does that change happen?
M. Laitman: This is out of the fact that he draws the reforming light, and he comes closer to the Creator.
Student: Is there such a state where he actually feels suffering in reception and pleasure in bestowal?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes.
Student: Where is this pleasure felt? Inside the person?
M. Laitman: Inside the person, in his vessels, in his desires.
Student: And why isn't that exchanging a donkey for a cow or something like that?
M. Laitman: When he uses the vessels of bestowal, he feels that pleasure is spreading through them. And when he feels that he's using the vessels of reception, he feels how in them only sorrow spreads.
Student: This is something that he feels in the vessels of importance or in his own vessels?
M. Laitman: No. He feels it in the vessels of the importance of the Creator.
Student: Meaning, in his vessel, he still feels suffering from bestowal and pleasure from reception, and on top of them, there are new vessels?
M. Laitman: Possibly, yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:45) Prior to when a person feels pleasure from bestowal, he needs to feel pain as a result of not being able to bestow?
M. Laitman: Again?
Student: Before a person feels pleasure in bestowal, the state prior to that, does he necessarily have to feel suffering as a result of not being able to bestow, pain?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: This is a sign that the light's working?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:37) I saw something that he writes here that only by keeping the Arvut can we be a nation that is a nation of a Segula. I thought that being a Segula, a nation that is a Segula, was given to us prior to that in order to be able to realize our mission. What is that?
M. Laitman: Without the Arvut, as we also read in the “Arvut” article, “Mutual Guarantee” by Baal HaSulam, we cannot realize ourselves. We cannot reach bestowal and recognition of the Creator and connection with Him. This all happens only through the Arvut between us.
Student: So it turns out that realizing the Arvut is a fundamental basic condition.
M. Laitman: Realizing the Arvut, of course, yes.
Student: So, to follow up on that, I need to actually devote myself. What does it mean to devote myself to the Creator?
M. Laitman: This is called devotion or soul devotion.
Student: But soul devotion needs to come through the friends, right?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And how does it work?
M. Laitman: That he annuls before the environment that the Creator has arranged for him and through this environment he reaches nearing to the Creator, and he's in soul devotion towards Him.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:29) He writes that, know my friend, that since we were together with Baal HaSulam, then we're more capable of approaching the Creator. Only we need to listen to His voice and obey His covenant so that the voice of the living ARI will not stop from us. What does it mean that the friends are together and they hear the voice of their Rav?
M. Laitman: That first of all they're in adhesion, in connection, in unity, in a mutual guarantee. And out of this whole vessel, they try to get closer to the Creator. So, He's also waiting for them, expecting them, and he has no other goals or passions but to feel that they are near Him.
Student: But how does this mechanism work? Because he writes that man tries to be favorable in the eyes of the Creator, and he does it for the sake of his brothers.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And because he wants to hear the voice, in this case of the Ari that lived among them.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, the question is, in our time, how can a person realize his desire to hear the voice of the Creator in approaching the friends and hearing the Creator?
M. Laitman: This is what he hears.
Student: How does he develop it?
M. Laitman: He develops it only through the connection, by increasing the connection between them, between him and his friends, and the Rav.
Student: How do you develop connection? By what?
M. Laitman: Through a desire. And he influences this desire through the environment.
Student: The voice of the Creator, man hears it because of his own desire or because the friends and the Rav, they sound it to him.
M. Laitman: They make him hear it. To the extent that he brings himself closer to them, and he pulls them towards him, to that extent, they influence each other, they speak together, truly from a single throat. And in this way, they begin to hear each other.
Student: So, it follows that man never hears the Creator directly. He always hears Him through the friends, through Rav.
M. Laitman: Yes. How could it be that he will hear the Creator directly, just like that?
Student: It depends on his desire for it to happen or..?
M. Laitman: It depends on his desire, but his desire should already be on a certain degree, well, not a prophet but on the way to that.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:14) It's said that the voice of the Creator, that we merited to hear as we were together with the ARI, the living ARI, he helps us in what, is the question?
M. Laitman: He is trying to come to us, meaning that he will, that he connects with us, and exists inside of us. That's it. I have nothing more to add.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:03) It's unclear, to continue the friend's question. Who's trying, who's trying to help us, Baal HaSulam or who, the ARI?
M. Laitman: The Creator.
Student: The Creator that's helping us?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And we, on our part?
M. Laitman: We should try accordingly to be in connection between us and to yearn towards Him.
Question (KabU): (36:40) What is the meaning of Jerusalem in relation to that the heart is called Jerusalem?
M. Laitman: Yes, there are such words and how they're used, that it seems to us that maybe it's a bit, it feels corporeal. But if we're talking about the world, in our world, Jerusalem means the internality of the Kli.
Question (Women Brasil): (37:22) What do we need to do in order to reach peace in the heart of the Ten?
M. Laitman: To love each other. Peace, Shalom, it's a word that evokes in us a passion towards each other, nearness, connection, and we need to understand what they're trying to tell us with such words.
Question (PT 22): (38:16) How can desires of reception allow desires of bestowal to rule?
M. Laitman: If they are greater, they're stronger, then they rule. They enter a struggle inside of the person, and a person feels these more than those.
Question (PT 31): (38:41) Are the questions of the friends a means of showing them yearning?
M. Laitman: Again?
Student: When friends ask questions during the lesson, is this a way to show the friends how much you're yearning, or you really want it?
M. Laitman: I don't think about that, I don't know.
Student: He's also asking if the questions during the lesson are a means for developing the connection with the teacher.
M. Laitman: Again, it doesn't seem to me this way. Well, it's possible, but no.
Question (Haifa): (39:27) Is there a difference between he who, well, both words mean servant of the Creator, Oved. Well, in Hebrew?
M. Laitman: One who serves the Creator versus the slave of the Creator. So one who works for the Creator is one who works on getting closer to the Creator. One who is the Creator's servant or slave means that he completely surrenders before the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:01) The Creator is in complete rest from what I understand. So what does it mean that he's trying for us? This is what you answered one of the friends.
M. Laitman: This is what is written, that each and every state that we go through, he is the one who orchestrates these states such that they'll be to our benefit.
Student: Because you answered the friend, that eventually you see how it changes. That in bestowal you feel great pleasure, and in reception you feel great suffering. And if he tried so hard, why is it such a lengthy process until you really attain it?
M. Laitman: We have no answer for that. I think that it's because the reward is too big.
Student: Meaning not to even try to search for an answer to this?
M. Laitman: Well, search more for the solution.
Student: How to come to that in the Ten?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:18) Rav, This entire letter speaks of questions, why don't you ask questions, and I want to ask you, what do questions give us when we ask them in relation to a state that will take me from the desire to receive to the desire to bestow? How does a question…?
M. Laitman: A question connects the desires of a person with the desires of the friends. Maybe even with the desire of the Creator. And by that, a person develops greatly.
Student: The desire of the friends for example is to reach bestowal, they don't know what it is, but they want to come to that, because they have this point that's pulling them to it. How does the question bring me closer to that?
M. Laitman: Well, nevertheless, you do connect with them, and they to you, and together you think about how to, how nevertheless you get closer to each other in the same desire.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:54) This is not the first letter where Rabash is seemingly disappointed that the students are not writing to him. I also don't write letters to you. Is this a problem?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: Why not? I mean, what does it mean to write a letter to the teacher now, for me?
M. Laitman: I don't know. I wrote to Rabash, maybe altogether, I wrote him letters twice.
Student: And he didn't have an issue with it?
M. Laitman: Because I was with him on a daily basis, connected with him on a daily basis. So, no problem.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:36) The Creator tries for us, pleads for us?
M. Laitman: Probably.
Student: And at the same time we know that He has no deficiencies, God forbid, He's all complete. But along with that, the cow wants to feed more than the calf wants to suckle. So, this desire of the Creator, how can we bring Him closer? And also, the sorrow is stronger with the Creator than the sorrow of the small organ, of the sorrow of every person.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, how is it possible for us, in order for us to want to get closer to Him even more? How can we increase His desire to give?
M. Laitman: It really is a problem. How can I connect? How can I open myself up more? You're right. But in the measure to which we invest in that, bit by bit, taking small steps, we come closer; and the Creator pulls us each time more and more even though we don't really feel it in each little action of ours. But that's what He does. And then we reach contact, connection with Him.
Student: And we see that He wanted so much.
M. Laitman: Right, then we reveal it.
Student: Thank you.
M. Laitman: Then we reveal it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:40) He also speaks here about a conflict that exists in the heart of the person, of the will to receive colliding with the desires to bestow or the other way around. The desires are all confused inside of him, they're in a conflict, and he says it's like hell because no desire is complete. And then he says that the solution doesn't work for beginners, but for my brothers and my friends, the decision of bestowal, from where does this force come, For my brothers, I will speak peace with you?
M. Laitman: That is already a revelation from the purpose of creation that shines upon the person and his entire environment, and that's how he starts advancing more clearly.
Student: But before that, just before that, he was in a very strong dispute of the will to receive against the will to bestow, none of them is whole, and it's great suffering. Suddenly comes this decision, this shifting, for my brothers and my friends. Does a person invite it, does it come by surprise, from where does this solution suddenly come?
M. Laitman: It comes to us you can say as a reward, or to the contrary, either as a prize or to the contrary as a reward; or to the contrary as something that helps us advance. But this is how it becomes revealed to a person.
Student: Why is it for the sake of my brothers and friends?
M. Laitman: This is his entire environment with the help of which he approaches the Creator.
Student: But he's the one suffering from the dispute, from the conflict.
M. Laitman: But there's nothing he can do, they become more important and closer to him than anything else in life.
Student: So, actually, the decision is not because of his suffering but because he sees the damage that he does because of this conflict, to the friends?
M. Laitman: Right. He sees that there is no one closer, more precious to him than his environment; and only by it, does he promise himself the approach to the Creator and to be able to bestow on Him.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (49:00) Rav, we learn that There Is None Else Besides Him. And He rules over everything.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And Rabash gives us all the time many examples, many ways, how to feel it, how to get closer to this state, to this knowledge, this understanding. And here he suddenly writes, it turns out that it follows that all of one's efforts are to be favored by the Creator. What does it mean to be favored by the Creator?
M. Laitman: That a person with all he has, he wants to come closer to the Creator and to be good in His eyes.
Student: But we are searching for this connection to Him, to the Upper One.
M. Laitman: That's your business, but on part of the Creator, this is what He does. He pulls man to Him.
Student: Later on, he writes that it should be in togetherness. How is it done, in togetherness? What does it mean, together?
M. Laitman: That everyone, all the friends, connect between them and scrutinize more and more how much they're connected between themselves and themselves and the Creator; and how much precisely that is what saves them from being disconnected from the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:44) I want to connect to the friend’s question: You said before that he has to hear the voice of the Lord. It means to completely give himself, devote himself to the Creator. The friend asked about the cow that wants to feed and the calf cannot receive all of the abundance that she wants to give him. If a person has decided that the cow is, let's say, he's completely in love with her, like a beautiful, smart woman, and he's completely in love with her. All his thoughts, his whole reality, all of his forces are in order to provide for her and care for her, but he feels there is this pain of the cow that wants to feed and he cannot provide for that, he cannot make it easier for her in anything that he does. He is at maximum work, but he sees, like a woman in labor pains, she's giving birth, I'm with her in the room but I can't do anything with her pains. Every time the labor pain comes, I cannot make it easier for her. What can the calf do to, what is it supposed to be in that state except to feel this labor pain and he feels that he can't do anything?
M. Laitman: Pray to the Creator, what does he have left to do?
Student: Yes, but why does, what's the benefit in feeling this pain? On his side, he made her the queen, he does everything for her, there's nothing more to be done than what he does. Like a student towards his Rav, he crowned him to be the king of his world and his whole essence is to be an organ of the king. So, why is there this pain that I have to feel, and I can't do anything about it? That my upper one is suffering so much because I'm not capable of connecting with Him because in my reality, I don't have such a hunger, I don't have such a belly, such an ability to receive the abundance that he wants to give me. What is the point here?
M. Laitman: The thing here is that you can't find the right point of connection, correct connection between you and the Upper.
Student: That's it, I'm asking about it, I agree, I don't know what it is, so what is that point?
M. Laitman: Your inner desire by which you open all of these spaces between you and the Creator.
Student: But if I'm already in a state where I'm in love completely, to the end of my soul in the one standing before me, what does that mean, what is this inner desire that I'm supposed to open up?
M. Laitman: Adhesion. A desire for adhesion.
Student: This desire for adhesion, is it something that even exists? In whatever I am, in this creature that I was born as?
M. Laitman: Even if not, but it'll open up.
Student: What should I focus on? What is the desire for adhesion? It's to be together, to feel the exaltedness, the knowledge, the wisdom, all of the merits. But what exactly do we knock on so there is the desire for adhesion?
M. Laitman: At that time, man doesn't know. He only can direct his yearning, his inclinations. This is what he wants to arrange and to aim that way.
Student: I have one more thing. Why, when the student was talking, I suddenly felt he's my brother in my essence.
M. Laitman: And?
Student: I'm asking, what was this thing?
M. Laitman: I don't know. Ask yourself. Ask the Creator. I'm not the one sending you what you feel.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:17) The scrutiny with the friends, when you truly feel the sorrow of the Creator and you don't know what to do about it, how not to run away from that state? Because you don't want to be there.
M. Laitman: Shut your eyes and continue. Continue: Pray, sing, doesn't matter what; but to all the time be connected.
Student: Not to stop this connection even if it’s painful?
M. Laitman: Doesn’t matter.
Question (Kyiv 1): (57:11) What does it mean that the Creator gives us a cane and also a loaf?
M. Laitman: I don't know. Can't think about it right now.
Question (Holland): (57:30) It says in the article here, the main thing that is explained here is that through the people of Israel, who are more capable than other nations to approach the Creator. So what does it mean to be more capable?
M. Laitman: It could be in different qualities. They might be able to suffer more, wait more, they're more sensitive, more capable of connecting between them, amongst them. All those things that we understand that it's good if a person's equipped with these qualities.
Student: Why don't we see this, Rav? Let's say, the nations of Israel at the moment, we see it the opposite. So, what makes them capable?
M. Laitman: The more they suffer, the more suitable they are for the work. That's something certain.
Student: And how can they, let's say, what it says, the sentence after that, it says, he will then bestow the abundance upon the rest of the nations. So the Israeli people will bestow abundance to the rest of the nations. So, when will that happen?
M. Laitman: Actually, according to what we're hearing from the different parts of the Torah, then first of all Israel received and then the nations of the world. In the meantime, you don't have this or that.
Student: Do the nations of the world have to do nothing? That means it's only the responsibility of Israel who are towards the Creator and they will automatically receive it because of them?
M. Laitman: So it seems. Therefore, the nations of the world hate Israel. But afterwards, it'll become revealed that it is not so.
Student: What do you mean by that? It is not so, Rav? What do you mean by that it’s not so?
M. Laitman: It only seems so, yes.
Question (Türkiye 2): (01:01:18) Rav, how can I stop being influenced by the desire to receive and begin to feel pleasure in bestowing and work for the Creator with love?
M. Laitman: Again?
Student: How can I stop being influenced by the desire to receive and begin to feel pleasure in bestowing and serve the Creator with love?
M. Laitman: This is something that only the Creator knows how to do. You need to ask Him to influence you with His light, and then you'll want to use the vessels of bestowal and not the vessels of reception.
Question (Türkiye 7): (01:02:19) Does the voice of the Creator show us our evil and His goodness? If so, how should we approach this voice?
M. Laitman: How do we need to approach our good and evil? In that we try to connect to our good and distance ourselves from our evil as much as we can.
Student: Rav, does the voice of the Creator show us the evil in us and the good in Him?
M. Laitman: No. I don't know how to answer. I don't know.
Question (New York 2): (01:03:40) A question from the Ten: How do we know if we're truly connected to the Rav on a daily basis and through him to the Rabash?
M. Laitman: You receive daily lessons from the Rav and besides, in the evening you connect between yourselves. Then, too, you're once again connected between yourselves with each other. And it's enough? It is enough. Probably have a few more such connections, work together during the day, and it's enough; if you really do it from the heart, wholeheartedly, you will feel how you ascend from day to day throughout the degrees, really the NRNHY .
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:08) What does it mean to ask the Creator for luxuries?
M. Laitman: To ask the Creator for something that you don't need in order to advance right now.
Student: How can I know that I don't need it?
M. Laitman: If you don't know, don't ask. First scrutinize.
Student: It feels like there's a point here where we can scrutinize exactly what we need to ask for. He says here, just ask for a life of holiness. How do we reach scrutinizing this state: What is luxuries versus life of holiness?
M. Laitman: Luxury is anything that is unrelated to the life of the soul.
Student: And we should be careful not to ask for that.
M. Laitman: Of course. Not to disperse your strength.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:06:17) Is it a correct scrutiny that necessity, what we should ask for, is only whatever helps the group advance, if it doesn't help the group advance, then it is luxuries, and I shouldn't ask for it. So, if a person, let's say, feels that he himself is sinning, he doesn't deserve, and he mentions that even if he will receive, he knows it will go to his vessels of reception, but actually he also doesn't need it. He doesn't need this thing in order to serve the society. Should he nevertheless perform some manipulation on himself, work on himself in order to become worthy of this thing even though right now it seems to him like luxuries. Because if all he has to do is serve the society, he doesn't need it, he has whatever he needs to serve the society right now.
M. Laitman: First of all, he should scrutinize it.
Student: According to which measure can I check if it's luxuries or not?
M. Laitman: According to the importance of society.
Student: What does this mean the importance of the society, whether I have importance for the society?
M. Laitman: Is it important to society?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:58) Rav, I hate the Creator. And because everything comes from Him, and I want to love Him. And what does He give me besides hatred? And I'm very angry. I don't know what to do. And I'm asking that the hatred continues to come. I hear from my friends that they also want to love. Maybe my request is incorrect. That's obvious. I don't know what to do from that point.
M. Laitman: What to do? From that point, you can only ask. Ask, ask, and ask ceaselessly from different points.
Student: How to put joy in such a request?
M. Laitman: Think. Nothing to do. I help in everything possible. Just know that what you have, this question, it comes from the Creator, the yearning and aspirations from the Creator, and use it. So, let's end here.
Reader: So, we'll move on to the next part of the lesson, The “Preface to the Sulam Commentary.” Let’s sing before.
Song: (01:10:21)