Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.

Daily Lesson (Afternoon), March 13, 2024

Part One: Baal HaSulam. Shamati, 218. “The Torah and the Creator Are One.”

Reader: Hello, we're reading articles of Shamati by Baal HaSulam. Today we are studying “The Torah and the Creator Are One.” You can find the study materials in the Arvut System, in the articles of Baal HaSulam, we are studying the article The Torah and the Creator Are One, number 218. 

M. Laitman: Yes, so let's read, maybe even twice. We need to see what Baal HaSulam writes and afterwards, we'll see further.

Reading Article: (00:48) “The Torah and the Creator are one.” Certainly, during the work they are two things. However, they contradict one another. The discernment of the Creator is Dvekut [adhesion], and Dvekut means equivalence, being canceled from reality. (And one should always depict how there was a time when he had a little bit of Dvekut, how he was filled with vitality and pleasure, and to always crave to be in Dvekut, for a spiritual matter is not divided in half. Moreover, if this is something fulfilling, he should always have the good thing. And one should depict the time he had since the body does not feel the negative, but the existing, that is, states he had already had. And the body can take these states as examples.)

The Torah is called “the light” in it. This means that during the study, when we feel the light, and want to give to the Creator with this light, as it is written, “One who knows the commandment the Master will serve Him.” Hence, he feels that he exists, that he wants to bestow upon the Creator, and this is the sensation of oneself.

However, when one is awarded the discernment of “the Torah and the Creator are one,” one finds that all is one. At that time, one feels the Creator in the Torah. One should always yearn for the light in it; and the light we can with what we learn, although it is easier to find the light in words of Kabbalah.

During the work, they are two ends. One is drawn to the discernment of the Creator, at which time he cannot study the Torah, and he yearns after the books of Hassidim. Then there is one who craves the Torah, to know the ways of the Creator, the worlds, their processes, and matters of guidance. These are the two ends. But in the future, “He shall smite the corners of Moab,” that is, they are both included in the tree.

 

M. Laitman: Okay, I don't see that there are any questions in the meantime, so we'll hear it again. 

Re-reading Article: (04:45) “The Torah and the Creator are one.” Certainly, during the work they are two things. However, they contradict one another. The discernment of the Creator is Dvekut [adhesion], and Dvekut means equivalence, being canceled from reality. (And one should always depict how there was a time when he had a little bit of Dvekut, how he was filled with vitality and pleasure, and to always crave to be in Dvekut, for a spiritual matter is not divided in half. Moreover, if this is something fulfilling, he should always have the good thing. And one should depict the time he had since the body does not feel the negative, but the existing, that is, states he had already had. And the body can take these states as examples.)

The Torah is called “the light” in it. This means that during the study, when we feel the light, and want to give to the Creator with this light, as it is written, “One who knows the commandment the Master will serve Him.” Hence, he feels that he exists, that he wants to bestow upon the Creator, and this is the sensation of oneself.

However, when one is awarded the discernment of “the Torah and the Creator are one,” one finds that all is one. At that time, one feels the Creator in the Torah. One should always yearn for the light in it; and the light we can with what we learn, although it is easier to find the light in words of Kabbalah.

During the work, they are two ends. One is drawn to the discernment of the Creator, at which time he cannot study the Torah, and he yearns after the books of Hassidim. Then there is one who craves the Torah, to know the ways of the Creator, the worlds, their processes, and matters of guidance. These are the two ends. But in the future, “He shall smite the corners of Moab,” that is, they are both included in the tree. 

M. Laitman: Okay, let's start to clarify. We have at least a few questions here.

Question (Women MAK 98): (08:43) This describes the state of canceling one’s own existence. How do we cancel ourselves as if we don't exist? 

M. Laitman: We need to cancel ourselves as if we don’t exist and we study the Creator, His actions without us. That's how we need to study it. Gradually, little by little, we'll then feel our world, how it acts by itself, and we'll feel what we need to do in it. 

Student: We won't measure anything against ourselves, just study, not compare ourselves? 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, yes. We will study that the world exists and acts according to certain laws, and we will learn those laws. 

Question (Women MAK 69): (10:10) Question from the Ten. In the quality of the Torah, we feel a feeling of self-perception, some reality where we can receive and give light. In the quality of the Creator, we feel ourselves part of a single system, a single system with the Creator. How in the work of the Ten, to combine these two qualities?

M. Laitman: We need to combine them.

Student: But they're seemingly different?

M. Laitman: Yes, but they're from a completely different, they’re from completely different qualities, and we need to try to bring them together. Gradually, we'll talk about these things. 

Question (Women Brasil): (11:19) Can we connect the light of the Torah and the light of Hassidim, or are they opposite things? 

M. Laitman: It's two things, and as much as we can bring them closer, then we'll understand what the difference is and what we have in the Creator and in the Torah, that the Creator needs to be dressed in the Torah. We'll still talk about these things. 

Student: Can I ask another question? Is the light of the Torah and the books of Hassidim, the Hasidic books, is this connected to our soul, the root of our soul?

Reader: She's asking about the end of the article, there is one who is drawn to the Creator, and then he yearns after the books of Hassidim. And there is one who craves the Torah to know the ways of the Creator, the worlds, the processes, and the matters of guidance. Is this connected to the root of the soul? 

M. Laitman: It belongs to a person's root of a soul, to which form of study he is drawn. So, there are those that are drawn to learn about the worlds and through Hassidim etc. And then there are those that want to come closer to the Creator more and to connect with Him, himself. That's it. We'll reach it.

Question (Women MAK): (13:35) There are four phases in our work. Elimination, too fast, I didn't get it. And it's all penetrated by the Creator. Should the desire go through all these phases and get an impression in the mind and in the feelings to get full adhesion with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes, it's absolutely correct.

Student: I wanted to ask about this intention. It's clear that the intention is for bestowal. Can we separate it in this way and make an effort in order for there to be elimination from above? Why do I need this elimination in order to have corrections? The correction brings to the revelation of the Creator, and it's all for his joy and his pleasure?

M. Laitman: Yes, that's correct. 

Student: Another question. The force of connection in the Ten is expressed in the intention for bestowal. Is that correct? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How to strengthen the intention for bestowal in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: We need to talk about it more. When you work, meaning when you do certain actions, try to feel that through that you are connecting and turning to the Creator. And then your aspiration to the Creator will be strong. And you will come to the revelation of the Creator. 

Student: It turns out the prayer is an expression of the intention, and we can always perfect it?

M. Laitman: Of course, yes. 

Question (Women Moscow 5): (15:29) I would like to clarify such a thing. In our wisdom, we often hear imagine, imagine, depict. What kind of being is a person if he can change his imagination about his state? It's as if we imagine the good, it changes the state. Where does this happen in us? 

M. Laitman: A person is made of seemingly two systems, in one system he feels, and in another, he can imagine to himself even if it's contradictory to his feelings. This is why when we are reading the explanations of the Kabbalists, we want to feel what they write. So, let's do it exactly like that.

Student: Is this some chemical process? Is our brain tuned to this? 

M. Laitman: Yes, little by little our brain will be able to go from feelings to sensations, to the work in the brain. That is when we'll be able to orient ourselves to specific understandings and feelings and towards bestowal, etc. 

Question (Women Kyiv): (17:14) Many of us got a reward, a gift, this feeling that other teachings could not explain. We came to Kabbalah; we got this answer. We studied the Torah. Sometimes this gift gives us this feeling we are in an environment. In what cases should we remember that we got this gift from the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Always, when you're feeling that you can strengthen your connection with the Creator, you need to try to use all those qualities and feelings that you once had. 

Question (Women Kavkaz 1): (18:16) Can I ask this way? Now I feel some reality myself, my feelings, my perception, and gradually a person comes to, he annuls himself and he feels the Creator truly, some reality he can call the Creator. Can we say so?

M. Laitman: Well, in the meantime, you don't have that, but you will.

Student: May I continue? Then the person feels even more that this is the reality we call the Creator, gets pleasure from me, and some additional feeling a person gets?

M. Laitman: Yes, yes.

Student: May I also ask? We got in an exercise to feel ourselves as the result of being included in the friends, and I feel like these are forces that are pulling me apart in different directions. In the meantime, I don't understand, should it be constructed in some kind of a sequence? 

M. Laitman: It'll come, don't worry. This is all, along the way, it'll come.

Question (Women Moscow 6): (19:41) If the Creator and Torah are one, why do we feel them as opposite? 

M. Laitman: We don't feel oppositeness. We feel them one within the other, the Torah and the Creator. Basically, if we're talking about qualities then we're talking about the Creator. If we're talking about the action itself, what we want to attain, then we're talking about the Torah, the light which acts on us and brings us to the desirable result.

Question (Women MAK 26): (20:35) Question from a friend. Can a person that studies Hassidic books start to yearn for the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Of course he can. What does he need for that? That he needs to know what we're doing. Because we want to reach a state where we feel the Creator. He needs to be engaged in that, in other words, it's enough for him. He needs to read our books a bit. But he needs to dive into that a bit. 

Student: Here it says about two pots. In Bnei Baruch, is there a preferable way? What can we learn from this article? 

M. Laitman: We're working according to the method of, how can I say this, the ARI, and Baal HaSulam. These are two main pillars upon which our study is held. And by that, we move forward in order to know the world in which we exist and reveal in it the Creator, the actions of the Creator. 

Student: Here it says about the path of the Creator and path of the Torah. Do we have any preference for either of them? Or are they both included in the method? 

M. Laitman: They're both included in the method. And through the path of Torah, we begin to reveal more of the Creator. That's how it works, one and the other.

Question (Women ITA): (22:57) Here there is the light of vessel that unites us and makes us feel one. Is this the last perception where the Creator awaits us? 

M. Laitman: The Torah is the Upper Light. And when we study, the Upper Light influences us and brings us closer to the feeling of the Creator, to the feeling of the actions of the Creator. And this is what we want to learn. We learn how to be more connected to each other, how to come closer to each other, and from between us to the Creator. Accordingly, we start to reveal the Creator's actions. And this is called the study of the Torah. 

Question (Women MAK 30): (24:38) In the article it says that the quality of the Torah is the light contained in it. And during the light, during the study, when we feel the light and want to give to the Creator with this light. How to build the work correctly, how to give this light to the Creator?

M. Laitman: That's when we're acting between us, trying to come closer, to connect. We hope that we'll be able to do this with the help of our efforts, to come closer to each other, like it says in the articles about the group. Then we start to reveal the light in us, trying to connect between us and aiming it to the Creator. 

Question (Women Mak 40): (25:48) Do we understand correctly that we can come to adhesion with the Creator, adhere to Him through the heart? On the other hand, we have the Torah and study through the mind. Is there any benefit of this study with the mind? 

M. Laitman: There are people that aspire to attain the Creator intellectually, as if technically. And then there are people who want to attain Him with the feelings within themselves. These are two paths. It depends on the person. We try to aspire to the Creator both this way and that way, both with the intellect and the feelings. We often reveal them more in the intellect, and then there are periods in which we reveal them more in the feelings. And in this way, we gradually go towards meeting Him, as if we're walking on two legs, right, left, right, left. This way we walk, let's notice here, you'll feel it. To what extent you sometimes perceive it with the intellect, and sometimes with the feelings. And we need to move both in this way and that way. 

Question (Women Turkiye): (28:02) In the article it says there is one who has a yearning for the quality of the Creator, and then they can't learn from the Torah. Why is it that a person that has a desire for the Creator cannot study from the Torah? 

M. Laitman: It's like in our world, there are people that are drawn towards the feeling, and then there are people that are drawn towards science, physics, math. For them, it's closer. And for others, it's literature, music. Also, in the study of Torah when we come closer to reveal all of reality, there are also two approaches there, sometimes like this, sometimes like that.

Question (Women MAK 51): (29:12) I didn't understand. There is one understanding than some other one. You said there are two paths of attainment with the mind and the feeling, and that the path of the Torah is the path of attainment through the mind. As I understood, the Torah is not just the mind, it's both, the heart and the mind, otherwise it's not the Torah. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: The question is a practical one. If I reveal in myself that I have a yearning for the path of the Torah, is that just my imagination, or can we see this in ourselves, detect it in ourselves? 

M. Laitman: No, in the meantime, it's still not clear to you. Wait, just don’t decide anything yet.

Question (Women Lithuania 5): (30:17) A similar question was asked, but I want to ask it from a different angle. When we study the Torah in a group, we start perceiving it intellectually. The question is, how to dress this Torah, knowing, and understanding of Torah, in the light of Hassidim? 

M. Laitman: Understanding and the light of Hassidim, they don't get clothed in each other. We should clothe the Torah in the light of Hassidim, and then get deeper, more into the, then there will be understanding, in the light of Hochma. And the light of Hochma will be clothed in the light of Hassidim. 

Student: Just to clarify, so this light of Hassidim, and the light Torah, so should we focus on the light of Hassidim, or is it happening at the same time that these lights are merging into one? How to really perceive it correctly, please?

M. Laitman: That the light of Torah will be clothed in the light of Hassidim. 

Question (Turkiye 2): (32:27) How can a person receive the light of the Torah, so one can feel the Creator in the Torah?

M. Laitman: It comes to him gradually, not at the beginning, but throughout a long time. If he wants to attain the Torah, feel the Creator, after some time he begins to feel how the Creator is inside the Torah, is clothed in the Torah, and then a person reveals Him in this way. 

Question (Women MAK 36): (33:10) When I heard your clip in which you said that Hebrew is not taught, but it's being remembered, I wanted to learn. For me, it's difficult to learn TES and by the ten Sefirot, but sometimes I feel something out of what we learn. Could it be that we too, through the sensations, we're feeling and remembering through the technical study, or we need to force ourselves to learn it?

M. Laitman: A little bit, we have to. If the technical part doesn't interest you or pushes you away, a little bit, you have to read it. Nevertheless, we don't study it that much. 

Question (Latin 4): (34:22) What is the difference between a person drawn towards the state of the Creator versus someone who is yearning for the Torah in order to know His ways?

M. Laitman: For now, it's not very clear to us, but soon. After eight to ten lessons, we can precisely understand what's happening here, and what this means. 

Student: The text at the end says that the two of them, in the end, will be included in the tree.

M. Laitman: In the future, the light of Hochma and the light of Hassidim, they both connect and are included in one another in the whole tree, in the whole system of the worlds and souls. 

Question (German): (35:53) In the article it’s written that the light basically is the Creator. When do we say Creator? When Torah? And what does that mean for our work? 

M. Laitman: It's the same thing. Creator and Torah are the same thing.

Student: It doesn't have any special meaning in our work? 

M. Laitman: No, Creator is Torah.

Question (Women Turkiye): (36:51) It's written in the text that we need to always yearn for the light and that we can get it with what we learn. What does that mean that we can get it from what we learn? 

M. Laitman: When we yearn for, to hear the Torah so that it influences us, our egotistical nature so that it would correct our nature from for reception to for bestowal. And then we'll feel in this the Upper Light the Creator that's in the Torah and then we'll get closer to Him. 

Question (Women Polish): (38:15) It seems to me that the feeling of the Creator in the heart is much more than for the mind. But you said it basically depends on a person and the root of one's soul. Do we need to look for a balance between the intellect and the feelings or we need to go according to how the root of the soul says it? 

M. Laitman: It depends on the root of the soul.

Question (Women PT 25): (38:51) What does it mean that we reveal the actions of the Creator through those attempts of connecting between us? What do we reveal? 

M. Laitman: We reveal the extent to which we can unite, or we can't unite and as a result we'll study the nature of unity when the essence of unity is the Creator we reveal.

Question (Women Heb 2): (39:30) How in the most quick and beneficial way can a person develop the feeling that the Creator surrounds him? 

M. Laitman: Only with the Creator. Only with the friends. To the extent that he feels them being with him in one circle, in one system, and the extent to which together in the unity they'll want to be clothed in the Creator, and then this will shorten the time and the path. 

Student: How do we develop that attitude the quickest way in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: How to develop the relationships in the Ten? Simply get closer to all the friends and embrace them and always try to feel that in such a way when you're in an embrace, you advance on the path and you soak up everything you receive from the Creator, revealing your common desire to the Creator. 

Student: When you say that we're embraced you mean that it's always imagined the friends and to pass warmth to them? 

M. Laitman: Yes, Warmth, support. 

Question (Women MAK 56): (41:02) What does it mean to direct the light to the Creator, it's to raise gratitude to Him? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Ukraine 2): (41:40) I have a question about self-awareness and unconditional love. How can we love unconditionally, since how can the request be not for oneself if the person is part of the whole? He's included in the system. How can he ask for others without this connection to oneself? By default, he gets from the system and for himself. It cannot be not for himself. What is this unconditional love? My feeling, inclusion in the system is only to ask for it but since by default I'm in it only with general good?

M. Laitman:  I don't know how to explain it. These are feelings you need to try to pass it through you, through your connections with the friends, and then you will reveal this opportunity to understand what it's all about. 

Student: The question is, is this the Torah and the Creator is one when you're asking that for yourself, or that's still not that state? 

M. Laitman: This also relates to this.

Student: Can I also ask a question? I didn't understand what is the difference in the work between the Torah, the path of the Torah, and the path of the Creator if basically they are the same. What is the advantage of the path of the Torah? 

M. Laitman: Continue to attain the Creator through unity between you and you'll understand what the difference is.  

Question (KabU 10): (43:39) In the sincere desire to want to connect and unite with the friends, how does one cope with the sense of guilt that they're not trying hard enough, if they really wanted to do this they would make that change rapidly and with such force it would just happen? Is this a natural phase to go through this feeling?

M. Laitman: Yes, this is a period. And then you’ll see that he can work without support from them or something else but in the meantime, he needs to continue. I understand you. 

Question (PT 31): (45:02) Can we say that the path of Torah helps us to go, the ARI and   Baal HaSulam help us to go through it?  And the path of the Creator, Baal Shem Tov and Rabash helps us to go through it? 

M. Laitman: I understand how you split up these sources, but you'll see that one and the other they both bring to one ending.

Question (Women MAK 97): (45:40) If you could tell us please the strength of the light in the book of Zohar works according to the root of the soul? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And another question can it be that before sleep you hear the Zohar and in the sleep it cleanses us?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women MAK 25): (46:19) How to correctly combine in the Ten that for someone it's closer through the intellect and someone through the feelings? 

M. Laitman: You'll start to understand each other because you must unite together in all of your inner qualities. In this one of them influences you in one field through the mind and the other one through the heart and that's how you should do it.

Student: Can we say that we'll come to balancing each one within ourselves and then there'll be a balance?

M. Laitman: Yes, okay

Student: If a friend can ask, if in the group we read a bit from one source and then another one and sometimes one part of the group gathers and then another one is there any problems in this? 

M. Laitman: No, there's no harm in this, you can continue.

Question (Moscow 1): (47:41) That mechanism of asking that for oneself, we just need just one component it turns out we just need to feel all the parts as yourself?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: The request basically always remains the same one? 

M. Laitman: Yes, it changes a little bit. 

Question (Women French): (48:15) A question from a friend in the same direction from before. When I feel a friend is in descent, how do I feel my desire such that the light that reforms will correct me that it will influence her, or that I'll feel that it will correct her?

M. Laitman: I didn't understand.

Student: She's asking if the friend is in descent, and I can direct my prayer such that the light will influence her or correct her or myself? 

M. Laitman: The light should correct the friend, that's first and foremost but together with this it will be improved because the light she will be improved because the light affects her this is called, he who prays for his friend is rewarded first. 

Question (Women Lithuania 5): (49:38) According to the text is the one who aspires to, who craves the Torah to know the ways of the Creator, the worlds, their process and matters of guidance. Is it correct that by that starts the practical Kabbalah of how we connect the left and right lines and from there we shall do and we shall hear? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Karmiel): (50:33) If I identify myself in one of these two extremes that Baal HaSulam depicts here, I need to ask to be brought closer to the other side or I need to be happy in where I am? 

M. Laitman: I didn't understand so well please repeat. 

Student: We talked about the feeling and the intellect of these two extremes, and if I see myself in one of these do I need to ask to be brought to the other side or do I need to be happy wherever I am? 

M. Laitman: We haven't studied this yet, usually we want to be connected with these two opposites and then come to the other one the other opposite, we'll speak about this.

Question (Asia): (52:15) Is it something about the adhesion and the reason that ultimately connects in which we bring in contentment? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Spain): (52:14) The friend's question is, how does the Torah act in the Ten, individually or in a general collective way? 

M. Laitman: Both one and the other and it's worth all in all for us to see this as a collective and individual way.

Question (Hadera 1): (52:51) In the second paragraph he writes, this is written whoever knows the commandments of his master will serve him hence he feels that he exists that he wants to bestow upon the Creator, and this is the sensation of oneself. The question, bestowing to the Creator depends on the feeling itself and what is that feeling itself? Is this self-awareness? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: How do we develop self-awareness in order to bestow more to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: You have to see this, how this happens.

Student: Can I ask another question? In the first part he writes whoever is drawn to the Creator and then he cannot learn from the Torah except for the Hassadim, are these all these books besides TES? 

M. Laitman: What are all those books besides TES? 

Student: We have this understanding of the system, inner work there are such and such, depends on the type of soul.

Question (Women MAK 36): (54:23) I am sorry for the question, but you see the roots of our souls and I wanted to ask are we working sufficiently with regards to the program or we need to speed things up or do something more together? 

M. Laitman: Do what we talk about, and you'll succeed.

Question (Women Kavkaz 1): (54:57) I continue the question from Moscow One in which a friend tied everything to this request for others. My question is, you said that the request doesn't change much or changes a bit are these two different parts? Is it one contentment or are there different variations there? 

M. Laitman: Generally, this is correct but the main thing before this work is to tune ourselves not to neglect the friends, be wary of this otherwise your work will disappear. 

Question (Women Kyiv 7): (55:54) How do we connect correctly so the ego doesn't trick us to think that we're connected:

M. Laitman: Once again. 

Student: How do we connect so that we truly connect and not so that the ego just tells us as if we're connected and working with the light anyway?

M. Laitman: We have to try this work until Gmar Tikkun, it's the same always, unite, unite more, more, more.

Student: We're connected like there's no one there's no single one of our friends. How do we then start working with the light? 

M. Laitman: You have to feel this in your examples.

Question (Turkey 2): (56:59) There's the way of the Torah to achieve adhesion with the Creator and then there's the path of suffering. The Torah is the way to reach the Creator but, in the article, it says that the Torah and the Creator are one. What is the connection that needs to happen in order to reach this unity and what exactly are we not seeing here? 

M. Laitman: The Creator is clothed in the Torah and through its text and through its actions He shows His nature when we have to as much as possible adhere to this, understand the Torah, feel the Creator, and unite with it, and with Him.

Student: What's this action that we have to do? What do I have to see with my eyes? 

M. Laitman: We have to open our hearts and let the Creator enter it fill up our hearts and then in this way, we have to help each other and then we'll succeed.

Question (Women Eng 1): (58:56) When we read the lessons, the materials when we read them in Hebrew, and we listen to them in Hebrew does the correction happen faster? 

M. Laitman: No, the main thing is so that it's more felt in the heart and that's it. I have to finish, I have to wrap up, I am embracing all of you and tomorrow we'll continue with God's help, thank you very much. 

Song: (1:00:16)