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

Daily Lesson (Morning) September 30, 2024.

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 51.

Reader: Hi, we are reading in the writings of Baal HaSulam in the Hebrew version, it's on page 783. It's in The Introduction to “The Study of the Ten Sefirot” and we will start on Item 51. You can find the study material on the Arvut system and on kabbalahgroup.info, you can also ask questions there. Anyone asking questions here in the study hall, we're asking you to stand up, hold the mic close to your mouth and speak clearly and concisely.

Reading: (00:36) Item 51 Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot. - twice

Now we have explained the two discernments of the perception of concealed Providence, which people sense: “one concealment” and “concealment within concealment.” One concealment relates only to the concealment of the face, while the posterior is revealed to them. This means that they believe that the Creator gave them the affliction as a punishment. And although it is hard for them to always know the Creator through His posterior side, which brings them to transgress, even then they are considered “incomplete wicked.” In other words, these transgressions are like mistakes because they come to them as a result of the accumulation of afflictions, since, in general, they believe in reward and punishment.

M. Laitman: If there's no questions, we'll continue. Read it again.

Re-read: Item 51

M. Laitman: In other words, these transgressions are like mistakes, because they come to them as a result of the accumulation of afflictions, since in general, they believe in reward and punishment.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (03:32) In this state that he talks about one concealment, what is, for a person, reward and punishment? 

M. Laitman: Reward is that he nevertheless attains something in the attitude of the Creator toward him; and, the punishment is that this attainment is nevertheless concealed. So, when something is revealed and something is concealed that's relative,  that's showing itself as a reward and punishment toward a person.

Student: So, he feels suffering, and he says he's in a state that the Creator brings me this suffering, right? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, is that the transgression, that it brings to transgression, such an attitude to the Creator brings transgression? 

M. Laitman: The fact that there is a Creator and He arranged for the suffering to them, that's both a reward and a punishment. 

Student: What's a transgression here, it says that it brings to a transgression? 

M. Laitman: The transgression, here, means that he's in those transgressions, his mistakes that came to them because as a result of the accumulation of afflictions. Since, in general, they believe in reward and punishment but he's constantly in a feeling of afflictions. 

Student: Meaning the revelation of the Creator needs to be in a form of pleasure, it cannot be in a form of suffering? 

M. Laitman: Yes, is The Good Who Does Good.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (06:05) What does it mean, the concealment of the face alone? 

M. Laitman: There's concealment within concealment. So, concealment of the face only, is that the face of the Creator is concealed; and, concealment within concealment is when the posterior is also concealed. 

Student: What is the reason? It's a lack of importance and greatness of the Creator in one's eyes? 

M. Laitman: The reason? 

Student: Yes? 

M. Laitman: And the reason is that the reason from the Creator, from the created being, right? Not from the Creator.

Student: Yes? 

M. Laitman: It's because the created being lacks the vessels related to the attitude of concealment. He can't see the connection with the Creator through the concealment.

Student: What does it mean that He has Achoraim, a posterior, if he has no vessels? 

M. Laitman: The posterior of the vessels is, seemingly, the opposite but even in a state of posterior, he can still detect the Creator. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (07:29) It is written that we believe that the Creator gives them the affliction as a punishment. What does that mean? 

M. Laitman: They have a certain degree of revelation that those punishments that they go through come to them from the Creator. 

Student: The Creator punishes? 

M. Laitman: Seemingly, He punishes them, yes. For now, that's what they have in this degree.

Student: So, what does it mean that they believe that the suffering comes to them in the form of affliction? That the affliction comes to them in the form of suffering, as in the form of punishment? 

M. Laitman: Through the states that they've been through, it comes to them from the Creator as punishment. That they themselves portrayed these afflictions as punishment. We'll continue and we'll see.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:00) What are transgressions that they feel that they do? 

M. Laitman: The transgressions that are truly against the desire of the Creator, the will of the Creator, with the intention to receive. 

Student: Those are not doubts that a person has? 

M. Laitman: No, it's clear to them that it's going against the will of the Creator.

Student: What does it mean that the transgressions in the form of suffering? 

M. Laitman: The transgressions, they now have to perform, it comes to them against their will. And they accept these transgressions and they keep them.

Student: What is the feeling of a transgression that a person feels that he does? 

M. Laitman: He's truly doing it against the will of the Creator. 

Student: What is the suffering that a person feels in that state, what is the suffering that he feels? 

M. Laitman: Together with that, he feels suffering, afflictions, but he can't stop himself from doing it. 

Student: It's written that he has transgressions from the suffering that he feels. So, what stops him in that state? What makes it so that that's the reason that he feels? 

M. Laitman: The reason is that he has no screen, he cannot resist. Therefore, those flavors, the taste that he discovers in his transgressions weaken him to such an extent when he goes for it, and he accepts them. 

Student: So, it turns out that transgressions and suffering are the same thing – that he is afflicted by having transgressions. When he is forced to make this transgression, that's what afflicts him, that's what Rav is explaining? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: But here, there's this nuance where we feel suffering, and due to that, we do the transgressions. Therefore, it's okay that? 

M. Laitman: Although they feel suffering, they are forced to transgress. We'll talk about it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:52) A person can sit here in the lesson and hear about the Creator and understanding, and agreeing with it, and maybe even feeling it. Is that called that he's in the first concealment, if he's feeling that instead of the suffering and afflictions? 

M. Laitman: You can say?

Student: So. the maximum a person like that can reach is, as Baal HaSulam writes here, an incomplete wicked? 

M. Laitman: Incomplete wicked. 

Student: What's this shift of degrees from the incomplete to the... 

M. Laitman: In the next state, he receives more light from above, and then what can he determine, accordingly? 

Student: If he determines that it's suffering, then he's a complete wicked. And if he justifies it, then he's called a righteous. Meaning he can be a righteous from the degree, from the state of incomplete wicked. He doesn't have to be a complete wicked to be a righteous?

M. Laitman: Let's read. Item 52. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:03) Why does a person who feels suffering, why that he has transgressions? 

M. Laitman: The question is where are the sufferings coming from, where are the transgressions coming from and what does he feel in them? 

Student: It's under the person's control or is he controlled? 

M. Laitman: For the time being, the state we're reading about, he's controlled. But the next step forward, it will be in his hands. We'll see, let's read.

Reading: (13:49) Item 52 – twice

Concealment within concealment means that even the posterior side of the Creator is hidden from them, since they do not believe in reward and punishment. These transgressions of theirs are considered sins. They are considered “complete wicked” because they rebel and say that the Creator does not watch over His creations at all and turn to idolatry, as it is written, “for they have turned to other gods.”

Reading: (15:37) Item 53

We must know that the whole matter of the work in keeping Torah and Mitzvot by way of choice applies primarily to the two aforementioned discernments of concealed Providence. Ben He He says about that time (Avot, Chapter 5): “The reward is according to the pain.”

Since His Guidance is not revealed, it is impossible to see Him but only in concealment of the face, from behind, as one who sees one’s friend from behind and might doubt and think he is another. In this manner, one is always left with the choice whether to keep His will or break it. This is because troubles and pains he suffers make him doubt the reality of His guidance over His creations, whether in the first manner, which are the mistakes, or in the second manner, which are the sins.

In any case, one is still in great pain and labor. The writing says about this time, “Anything you find that your hand can do by your strength, do” (Ecclesiastes 9). This is so because he will not be granted the revelation of the face, the complete measure of His goodness, before he exerts and does whatever is in his power to do, and the reward is according to the pain.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:05) This definition of transgression and sins, is that what a person relates to, that's what he feels in the same perception? 

M. Laitman: This is something that goes according to a person's feelings. 

Student: Why in double concealment, as is depicted here, that the person doesn't relate to the Creator at all, it’s as if he finds other reasons. Why is that called a sin? 

M. Laitman: Maybe we'll read a few more items and then we'll see. 

Student: I'll just add to the question: Why is a regular concealment called a transgression? Does a transgression appear to him that way? 

M. Laitman: Because a person is under the providence of the actions of the Creator. And then they work on him in such a way that he gets through them with a certain impression, positive or negative. And that's why it's called a mistake. 

Student: I didn't understand. A mistake, it's someone who relates to me as a mistake. What is a mistake, here?

M. Laitman: Mistake is like an error, like something unintentional. How do we come out of it? We’ll see that shortly.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:08) I'm trying to scrutinize this matter of concealment within concealment, and one concealment and how a person shifts from one stage to the next. Before a person comes to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, there's no Creator in his life. Just like I was before coming here, I was complete secular. I believed that I was responsible for my life. Is that concealment within concealment or did I not even reach that? 

M. Laitman: You weren't in it, you didn't have any attitude towards providence.

Student: If a person has no relationship to providence, then it's not even concealment within concealment. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: When a person comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah, sits in a group next to Rav, reading from the Kabbalistic texts, and then what? How does he then know that he is in concealment within concealment? 

M. Laitman: He invests his powers, his forces, and as a result he receives a changed attitude toward reality, toward Creator, toward what's happening to him. And then relative to that, he arranges his ladder of values, of relationships. 

Student: Precisely, at the beginning of the study, a person has such a feeling, usually it happens with new people who feel that they reveal the Creator and His actions. They start feeling all kinds of phenomena that are related to Him. Is that called concealment within concealment, that stage? 

M. Laitman: No but we go through in the beginning, we don't define a name.

Student: That's what I'm trying to clarify, then, when does a person know that he reaches a degree called concealment within concealment? Before he even progresses to the higher degrees? What changes in the person where he can say to himself, ah, okay, that's my state? 

M. Laitman: The fact that he draws upon himself the reforming light each time, although very small measures; nevertheless, that's what adds to him the recognition, awareness of the Creator. With those small lights, he's not drawing them because it's clear to him what he's doing. Rather, he gradually acquires this feeling of the connection with a higher force, that's it. And he goes through the revelation of the face, the concealment of the face, until he can decide that these are his relationships with the Creator Himself. 

Student: Then he works a little bit more and he shifts to a stage of single concealment, one concealment. What then changes from the double concealment to the single concealment? What revelation does a person have, what does he understand or feel that he didn't, beforehand? 

M. Laitman: That he didn't even feel a concealment, he didn't feel like anything is concealed from him. We'll see about the relationship to the Creator. 

Student: Is this matter of concealment within concealment and one concealment, does that depend on the person's intention? Or does it depend on something else?

M. Laitman: Concealment within concealment is when he does not feel the concealment. 

Student: Does it mean that he feels that he's in revelation? 

M. Laitman: No, meaning that even the Creator's posterior are hidden from him. 

Student: And it means that this person?

M. Laitman: Because he does not believe in reward and punishment. These transgressions of theirs are considered sins. Because it doesn't look at them as if they are in his hands. And they are called completely wicked because they rebel and say that the Creator does not watch over His creations at all and turn to idolatry.

Student: What is idolatry in this state? A person's already in this study, as we said, that's a state of concealment, within concealment? So why is it idolatry and what is it idolatry? He's in a Ten, he's studying, he's reading. 

M. Laitman: No, no, but there is before him such states. What is evil inclination with the Creator that he is drawn to them in spite of his will to receive? Look what he says, on the one hand, on the other hand, it continues and says that the whole work in Torah and Mitzvot is specifically, here. Because of the choice we have to make in either walking under one line or another. Otherwise, there would not be any reward and punishment, no attainments.

Reading: (26:48) Item 53

We must know that the whole matter of the work in keeping Torah and Mitzvot by way of choice applies primarily to the two aforementioned discernments of concealed Providence. Ben He He says about that time (Avot, Chapter 5): “The reward is according to the pain.”

Since His Guidance is not revealed, it is impossible to see Him but only in concealment of the face, from behind, as one who sees one’s friend from behind and might doubt and think he is another. In this manner, one is always left with the choice whether to keep His will or break it. This is because troubles and pains he suffers make him doubt the reality of His guidance over His creations, whether in the first manner, which are the mistakes, or in the second manner, which are the sins.

In any case, one is still in great pain and labor. The writing says about this time, “Anything you find that your hand can do by your strength, do” (Ecclesiastes 9). This is so because he will not be granted the revelation of the face, the complete measure of His goodness, before he exerts and does whatever is in his power to do, and the reward is according to the pain.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:07) Can you say that the difference between the concealment is the difference between the level of sorrow of having a detachment with the Creator, that according to the amount of sorrow that a person has, then the concealment is different? 

M. Laitman: You can’t say that there's a direct relationship between the two. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:45) There's an example here, that during the concealment, the person sees the Creator only through his posterior, and he's not sure that it's Him. And he says that in that way, he always has the choice in the person's hand whether to keep the Creator's commandments or not, or whether he'll break them. Is it speaking here about this or something else? 

M. Laitman: I understand that, here, it depends on the extent to which a person can bend himself toward the Creator.

Student: And what does it mean to keep his will? 

M. Laitman: Well, it's revealed to him along the way. 

Student: What I understand, the person feels suffering, he feels the Creator through his posterior, he feels suffering from the Creator. And in that state, he has the ability to keep His will. What does it mean to keep His will in such a state?

M. Laitman: To run away from suffering because this is not right in the eyes of the Creator.

Student: So, disagree to see the Creator as one who does bad actions, but? 

M. Laitman: That's why he departs and doesn't accept it. 

Student: What is escaping from suffering correctly? 

M. Laitman: He doesn't want to feel suffering because they're not good in the eyes of the Creator. 

Student: And if he doesn't feel suffering but he tells himself it's not suffering? 

M. Laitman: No, it is suffering but they are such that he does not want to feel them.

Student: Above the suffering, he wants to feel that the Creator is Good That Does Good, that sends him that. 

M. Laitman: Perhaps, it does not say it, yet. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:53) It's something that Rabash writes, “a person determines the form, whether it's good or bad. Meaning, whether the suffering comes to correct him, that is called good. And if not”, then he said, “really that he feels them as suffering”.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:18) In that state of double concealment, there is a motion between labor and the result? 

M. Laitman: I guess, yes? 

Student: Meaning, a person can feel how much he feels that amount that he needs to feel and then he progresses? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Why is it called double concealment? 

M. Laitman: If he can see correctly what he’s doing and decides according to his feeling that this is concealment, then it is concealment. If he determined that he's going back to his decision, then it's a double concealment. We'll see.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:29) How can one make oneself bow down before the Creator? 

M. Laitman: To bow down, or bend his will to the Creator, is as if he's in very clear definitions. He cannot say that it's not the way I feel; rather, the fact that now he reveals the attitude of the Creator toward him, he accepts it as truth. And what's revealed to him, that's already not truth. 

Student: Meaning, the position of the decision, or choice, is very sharp and clear to the person. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And if he keeps his will or breaks his will, whether he bows down to the Creator or not. It depends on the person. 

M. Laitman: It determines his position. 

Student: So, the force of the will to receive, the help against him, is much stronger and weightier than in this state, heavier in this state? 

M. Laitman: It's a force a person has to work against – or specifically – with the help of this force a person can determine, evaluate where is he advancing toward, the Creator or toward himself. 

Student: Meaning, the expression is great, so what determines the way it goes? Because the will to receive turns up even though he can go with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: No, that's only to the extent that the light is revealed, does not depend on a person. 

Student: It's not the person who chooses? 

M. Laitman: A person doesn't choose anything. 

Student: What's the role of the person in the place of choice? 

M. Laitman: That's already a problem. What does he want to happen? 

Student: The person's desire changes something, here? 

M. Laitman: Let's say that, yes. 

Student: Why would he want to suddenly want to bow himself down there, that his nature is opposite? 

M. Laitman: But he wants the Creator to be just and right.

Student: That tendency is what determines? That's what lets the Creator do the decision? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Novosibirsk): (36:13) Does a person himself determine his state whether he's in first concealment or the revelation of the face? 

M. Laitman: No, a person can determine his state according to how the Creator is revealed on top of a person's situation. 

Student: Can a person prevent the second concealment, the double concealment? 

M. Laitman: Yes, I understand. How can he prevent himself or hold himself back? No.

Question (Piter 3): (37:04) Is the second concealment, the double concealment, a more progressed state toward the purpose of creation than the first concealment? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: What's the difference between mistake and sin? 

M. Laitman: How is it in Hebrew? A mistake? 

Student: A mistake. 

M. Laitman: What kind of mistake, is it clear or not clear? 

Student: Unintentional – that I had this unintentional mistake that happened to me unintentionally. 

M. Laitman: Compared to maliciously? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:51) To people who do not study at all, can we say about them that they are in double concealment? 

M. Laitman: No, no, all those states from revelation and concealment, all the degrees, they come from the combination, or sharing, of a person with the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:24) I heard now that transgressions that we need to go through, due to much suffering in the first concealment. They come to us beyond our power and we have to accept those transgressions and keep them. So, what does it mean that we accept and keep the transgressions? 

M. Laitman: The actions where we do not hold the right intentions relative to the Creator, the way He relates to us, these are called transgressions. And when we observe them, we call them wicked. 

Student: But I accept that, I know I'm going to do the transgression, and I just accept that that's how it is? 

M. Laitman: I didn't understand?

Student: Meaning, I'm conscious, I'm aware, that I'm about to do the transgression, and I agree with that, is that what it means? 

M. Laitman: It could also be like that, such actions, yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:55) Why does he write that suffering brings doubt in His Providence. But when a person gets sorrow and troubles, he understands that it's from the Creator. So why does it raise a doubt? 

M. Laitman: Because it's in the nature of suffering: When I begin to feel afflictions, when I feel bad, there's a fact, and there's a feeling. So, in my feeling if I'm feeling afflictions, then I begin to think, to have doubts. Is it correct or incorrect, is it worthwhile or not, so on and so forth? This happens to us also in our degrees. 

Student: When we go on the path, we feel suffering, and we feel as if we did something incorrect, that something's not okay. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: That raises the feeling of the Creator's Providence, it doesn't raise a doubt. It inserts us into some kind of preparation, review, critique, scrutiny.

M. Laitman: Right.

Student: When we feel suffering, what does that contribute to us, that we feel the suffering, we feel that we're not okay. Let's say I'm incapable of annulling myself at a certain point, I can't annul. I feel suffering, the Creator adds more suffering. Let's say it comes, even from a prayer, you pray and then you feel more suffering. And then you go to sleep, you escape because you're incapable. So, what does that give, that addition of suffering? 

M. Laitman: The additional suffering gives us the ability to scrutinize. Under which forces we're operating, what's good for us, what's bad for us, what are we attracted to? 

Student: Do we have anything that we can do other than escaping? 

M. Laitman: Of course.

Student: Sometimes the prayer increases the suffering. 

M. Laitman: The prayer is not the last stage; already before that we can do all kinds of actions and see. We're thinking about the way we feel one way or another, the Creator is good, the Creator is bad, He twists us this way or that. And only after that, we begin to make discernments, to make decisions. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:16) What is the attitude to the Creator of reward and punishment? What does it mean that we relate to the Creator with this expectation for reward and punishment? 

M. Laitman: The Creator is the origin, the source, of all the actions on us, the actions we accept as reward or punishment.

Student: I'm just checking whether I relate to this, correctly. It's like in commerce, if I do something good, then I get this reward from the Creator. And if I do bad things, then the Creator punishes me.

M. Laitman: Why is it a bad thing? I want to measure myself, evaluate myself accordingly. I want to sustain myself in this way – this is in the right direction, this is in the wrong direction.

Student: It seems like a very dry relationship toward the Creator. It just seems very objective and correct, like that's how it needs to be. That we're in some business, and I put in some work, and He?

M. Laitman: Let's go forward a bit more, another item. 

Reading: (44:38) Item 54 Twice

When the Creator sees that one has completed one’s measure of exertion and finished everything he had to do by the power of his choice and his strengthening of faith in the Creator, the Creator helps him. Then, one attains Open Providence, meaning the revelation of the face. Then, he is rewarded with complete repentance, meaning he adheres to the Creator once more with his heart, soul, and might, as though naturally drawn by the attainment of the Open Providence.

M. Laitman: Is that clear? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:38) What does it mean to strengthen in faith in the Creator? 

M. Laitman: That he chooses to grow stronger, to strengthen in the faith of the Creator, as the Good Who Does Good. And that He is working everywhere, everywhere He reveals everything, He fills everything. And then a person tries to adhere to the Creator, this adhesion, and all the qualities of the Creator that have to be revealed. This is called, faith in the Creator. 

Student: Strengthening in faith in the Creator is?

M. Laitman: Yes, he accepts everything that is revealed to him as being revealed directly from the Creator. And he's trying to, he's trying to cleave to these feelings and these attainments. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:17) Is the transition between the concealments and the revelation dependent on that in which a person starts doing the work above reason, as it's called? Or is above reason already existing within that transition from the first to second concealment? When does a person start using that Kli called faith above reason? 

M. Laitman: And before that, what did you ask? 

Student: I'm asking this: Faith in the Creator, I heard this definition that the faith in the Creator is above reason. So, when a person succeeds to reach a place where he can go above reason, as we call it. So, I'm asking if one, if that's correct, and two: If a person shifts from concealment to revelation, then that's a place where the person can succeed in using that Kli, that tool, of faith above reason which makes that transition from concealment to revelation? Because, I'll tell you why I'm saying that, it's because it seems that the Creator doesn't change His attitude to the person throughout that entire process. What changes is the person and his attitude to what the Creator sends him. So, the Creator opened some desire for me, in the stage of concealment, it seems like affliction and suffering. Because that's my attitude toward reveals, because it's seemingly as if the Creator wants to bring me to suffering. But then, at a certain point, the person succeeds in doing that transition to faith above reason, and then he understands that the Creator is the Good That Does Good, which he didn't see before that. Because before that it seemed to him as if the Creator is beating him. So, I'm asking if that's correct, that entire story that I just told now.

M. Laitman: No, where are you taking this from? 

Student: Faith in the Creator, strengthening in faith in the Creator – I'm continuing what our friend asked, here, I'm trying to scrutinize it a bit more. Faith in the Creator, is that called faith above reason, that a person succeeds to use that tool of faith above reason? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, in the Concealment, that stage beforehand, there is no faith in the Creator Or maybe there is? 

M. Laitman: Let's say there isn't. 

Student: There isn't, okay, so transitioning from concealment to revelation is that a person enters faith above reason.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Okay, so in order for the person to make that transition to faith above reason, does he need to be a complete wicked, beforehand? Meaning, does he need to be in a place where he precisely falls to the lowest point? 

M. Laitman: What would that give him? 

Student: That's what I'm trying to understand because earlier the friend said, is the double concealment, is that a more advanced state on the path than the first concealment? And you said, yes. That's what I'm trying to understand because the second concealment, it feels as if he's a complete wicked. And then according to the definitions that Baal HaSulam's writing, here. Meaning that the person needs to be a complete wicked before he transitions to revelation. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: That's correct. 

M. Laitman: Let's say, I don't know, I'm following your logic. 

Student: I don't want you to go with me, I want to hear what you say.

M. Laitman: No, you should go ahead and build your ladder. 

Student: Okay, until here, I don't know how to continue. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:11) Maybe to put it in order: If a person is in, There's None Else Besides Him, and he doesn't know how to justify the Creator, then we call him, wicked, complete or incomplete, but he's wicked. But once he starts to say that Good Who Does Good, he begins to be righteous – also complete or incomplete. Meaning, before I feel Good Who Does Good, it's concealment, although There is None Else Besides Him but concealment, one or double, 

M. Laitman: Well?

Student: Is this a correct division, for now? 

M. Laitman: For the time being. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:03) He writes, “after the Creator sees the person exerted and did everything he had to do”. I'm asking myself many times, what do I have to do, and I'm asking the Creator and also asking the Ten, what can we add now? It's not entirely clear to me, how can you scrutinize it every moment, what can I add? 

M. Laitman: Add always in labor. Well?

Student: Labor means prayer? 

M. Laitman: Meaning, upon whatever reveals to you, you can add labor. 

Student: It means that I have to add the labor or the exertion to a series of states that are waiting before me? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: It doesn't mean that I can now, that's it, reach complete faith. Time also plays a role, here?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:25) “He accepts everything that is revealed to him as revealed from the Creator, and he tries to be adhered to these feelings and attainments.” So how can a person distinguish between what feels to him like attainment, a revelation, I'm sorry, and true revelation? 

M. Laitman: What's the difference between a false and a true revelation? 

Student: One belongs to eternity and truth, and one?

M. Laitman: But who can check that? 

Student: Exactly, precisely, that's a great fear?

M. Laitman: Meaning that there is no such definition, no such correct definition toward a person. 

Student: What can a person do? 

M. Laitman: I don't know but that is incorrect. 

Student: You can see many states of people who are certain they revealed something, but we see that there's a big distance between that and the truth.

M. Laitman: Yes, and therefore, it is forbidden for us to determine that. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:44) There's a very clear assignment throughout the book, to grow stronger in the faith of the Creator, right? 

M. Laitman: Whatever he agrees with.

Student: That's the topic, that's what we should focus on, growing, strengthening in the faith of the Creator, reward and punishment. Grow stronger before the study, during the study, he keeps repeating that. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: That's the assignment, what is that assignment? How do you measure it, how do we relate to it properly, correctly? 

M. Laitman: To reveal the upper light, the light of the Creator, as much as it fills one's vessels. 

Student: To reveal the upper force, the light of the Creator, to the extent that it fills your vessels. So, for that you need vessels, it means that it's exertion, it's labor, we have to labor in that?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: And then there are all kinds of states, one concealment, double concealment, but the assignment is the same. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, in which vessel this exertion is revealed? 

M. Laitman: The labor becomes revealed in the vessels that you want to elevate to the Creator. 

Student: Before, what I heard, that a person can determine his state according to how the Creator is revealed on top of his state, above it. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What is that force that's called love, this faith that is above the states, above first concealment, second concealment, I guess even above revelation, I don't know? 

M. Laitman: The force of faith is the desire to bestow, which is against your desire. And you are ready to use it in connecting to a higher degree. 

Student: Now, this desire, it can be strong or weak? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What does it mean to strengthen in that desire, what does that mean? 

M. Laitman: It seems that there are actions that through which we can strengthen the desire and increase it. 

Student: Which are actions in the Ten in the study.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: But that's the focus, in strengthening in the faith in the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:57) There are suffering, afflictions on my will to receive, where I enjoy or don't enjoy. And there are sufferings that come from how much I can bestow contentment to the Creator, in my state, whether I enjoy or not. And so, in single concealment, it means that I can bestow contentment to the Creator over half of the desire, a certain degree, not a full one. And in the double concealment, it's not clear why this feeling comes, where I cannot bestow contentment to the Creator, at all, there's no chance the Creator is enjoying this. It's not clear how this feeling comes, how such light comes that I can't even to a small extent bestow contentment to the Creator. 

M. Laitman: I'd say that there's also a question, here.

Student: What's missing for a person in that state? 

M. Laitman: The light of faith. 

Student: But to reach such concealment, I guess there were a light of faith. Otherwise, how do we get to that state where he drew such a light? 

M. Laitman: Yes. Where are we? 

Reader: Fifty-five. We can read fifty-four, again?

M. Laitman: That's for sure that we need to do that.

Re-reading: (59:33) Item 54 

M. Laitman: Is it clear until here? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:38) “He adheres to the Creator with his heart and soul and might.” What is that? 

M. Laitman: Where are you reading? 

Student: In item 54, second paragraph toward the end, there.

M. Laitman: “And then he's rewarded with the complete repentance”? 

Student: Repentance. 

M. Laitman: And then he adheres, where is that? 

Student: Yes, he adheres to the Creator. 

M. Laitman: “And he adheres to the Creator in all his mind, heart, and soul.”

Student: What does it mean he adheres to the Creator with his heart, soul, and might? 

M. Laitman: That he is adhered with complete equivalence of form in those vessels of heart, soul, and might.

Student: What is with his heart?

M. Laitman: The whole heart, yes. And everything a person has, in all the vessels that a person has. He adds, as he is drawn to Him from Open Providence.

Student: What does it mean to adhere to the Creator with all his heart? 

M. Laitman: I don't know but when he reaches that state, it seems that he will feel that. What does it mean to be adhered with the Creator? 

Student: They say with all his heart, from the bottom of his heart. What does it mean to adhere to the Creator with all his heart? 

M. Laitman: With all of his vessels, it seems, with all the vessels. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:02:29) This point of completed the measure of his exertion. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, a person can know that he exerts more and more and more until at some point his measure of exertion is complete?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Before he completes his measure of exertion, can he know what degree is his exertion can he measure it? Or he just has to do the maximum? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, “the person finished his labor and then he did everything he could in the Open Providence, meaning he was rewarded with revelation of the face. And then when he finishes everything, the Creator helps him and he's rewarded with the Open Providence”. 

Student: It seems like then he needs even more faith?

M. Laitman: I don't know, it's written, “and then he's rewarded with complete repentance. Meaning he adheres to the Creator with his heart, soul, and might as though he's naturally drawn by the attainment of open Providence”. 

Student: The faith is above states called, double concealment and regular concealment. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Then a person has to grow stronger in faith using all the means necessary. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Now, he completed his exertion, his labor. It doesn't say now I don't need faith down there. I can put it aside as a revelation. No, he needs more faith above the revelation.

M. Laitman: You see that there is no more. But then he's rewarded with complete repentance. Where is it written? “Then he is rewarded with complete repentance, meaning he adheres to the Creator once more with his heart, soul and might as though he's naturally drawn by the attainment of the Open Providence.” 

Student: So, this complete repentance, that's his state.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:04:48) We read that all of the exertions in Torah and Mitzvot during the time of the concealment, when one has no vessels. Now, during revelation, when he's rewarded with revelation, after completing his exertion. He adheres to Him and there's no more Torah and Mitzvot. It's a happy ending? 

M. Laitman: Where is it written that there is none? 

Student: Providence, revealed Providence – he came to the revelation of the face – but what is there? 

M. Laitman: “Even though after he sees that he filled his exertion and then he has done everything, he has done everything he could by the power of his choice and strengthening the faith of the Creator, the Creator helps him, then one attains Open providence, meaning the revelation of the face.” Well, is that clear until here? 

Student: It's clear but it's not clear why there should be a continuation. He is rewarded with the revelation of the face? 

M. Laitman: Then, he is rewarded with complete repentance. What does he have at the end? “When he's finished all of his exertion and he received all the revelations, then he's rewarded with complete repentance, meaning he adheres to the Creator once more with his heart, soul, and might”, meaning completely in all of his vessels, “as though naturally drawn by the attainment of the Open Providence”. 

Student: He doesn't have any more room for exertion, he has no place for exertion in that state? 

M. Laitman: But what should he exert in? Maybe more vessels will reveal to him but, in the meantime, what he says is that the person brings all of his vessels to adhesion with the Creator. 

Student: With the help of the Creator, of course. 

M. Laitman: Item 55. 

Reading: (01:06:45) Item 55

These above attainment and repentance come to a person in two degrees: The first is the attainment of Providence of absolute reward and punishment. Besides attaining the reward for every Mitzva in the next world in utter clarity, he is also rewarded with the attainment of the wondrous pleasure in immediate observation of the Mitzva in this world.

In addition, besides attaining the bitter punishment extending from every sin after one’s death, one is also rewarded with feeling the bitter taste of every transgression while he is still alive.

Naturally, one who is imparted this open Providence is certain that he will not sin again, as one is certain that he will not cut his own flesh and cause himself terrible suffering. In addition, one is certain that he will not neglect a Mitzva without performing it the instant it comes to his hand, just as one is certain that he will not neglect any worldly pleasure or a great profit that comes into his hand.

M. Laitman: Okay, is that clear?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:50) He defines here all the stages. Now, first concealment, which is the only thing I could feel. He says that all the afflictions found me because I have no Creator in me, meaning he relates the punishment to the Creator. 

M. Laitman: Well? 

Student: We could talk about it because we all go through it in our revelation, and below it, you it's a little foggy. But if you grasp the first concealment, that's how he defines it, above that is revelation, below that is greater concealment. There’s no distinction between, I wanted punishment or not, I'm receiving a reward or not. So, how can a person from this first concealment, which looks very close to us, how does he acquire faith that he can rise above it? 

M. Laitman: Well? 

Student: What is the action he needs to do, here, at this point? 

M. Laitman: What is the light of faith? 

Student: From first concealment, what is a person's action to rise above? 

M. Laitman: Revelation. 

Student: How?

M. Laitman: What's concealed from him? 

Student: That the Creator is Good Who Does Good.

M. Laitman: So, how does it need to become revealed? 

Student: A friend said above reason, maybe; maybe, above reason. 

M. Laitman: Above reason is something you cannot grasp.

Student: Right, that's what I'm asking.

M. Laitman: Okay, help the friend! You have friends, so they'll help.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:02) You determine using exertion, that's what I have to do, to add prayer, to add connection. 

M. Laitman: Okay, and you? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:13) You grows stronger in the faith of reward and punishment, as we discerned earlier. As if he believes that every opportunity the Creator gives, even if it looks like a posterior, Achoraim, or resistance to the will to receive. That he understands it's an action you can do against the will to receive.

M. Laitman: Okay, more? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:46) Our state is one where we have to grow stronger, that's what Rabash teaches us. If you grow stronger in the environment, this is the power that will let you ascend, rise. Meaning our success is not in the moment of suffering, but in the preparation work that we do to eventually help us deal with those states the Creator is sending us. So, we have to prepare our vessel, and the more it is, as far as our connection and cooperation in the group, this will be the faith that we can overcome to that extent. 

M. Laitman: He said it nicely. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:38) Maybe we can summarize Rabash's articles with a few words. First of all, gratitude for the state that's revealed. With that gratitude, everything can go into wrong places. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Then, a request for the friends, scrutinizing the state before the friends and asking for them. And from here, everything continues to strengthen. Strengthening is only, we need to acquire a new vessel that we don't have. That's what we have to grow stronger in. 

M. Laitman: What have we reached? 

Reader: We finished item 55.

M. Laitman: Okay, so with God's help we'll continue tomorrow, item 56. What else do we have? 

Reader: We'll go to the next part. Want to sing a song? 

Question (Karmiel): (01:13:35) How do we combine the content of the Introduction to TES with TES? The connection between the support of the introduction to the text of TES is not clear. 

M. Laitman: So, we have to scrutinize but I'm sure it's, we can't learn the Introduction to TES and all these texts, if we don't accept inside us in a clear way all of the definitions. 

Question (Almaty 1): (01:14:30) There's reward and there's punishment. Does the Creator take the free choice by this because it turns out that we become like spiritual animals that are being nourished, fed?

M. Laitman: The Providence, he later on asks and answers, what's up with Providence, with the freedom of choice? And we will learn it.

Question (Moscow 1): 01:15:10() The face of the Creator, when we, it's actually a reflection of ourselves that we're discovering?

M. Laitman: We'll learn that together, we'll go through it, we'll learn it together and then we can see. But it's not something that you can imagine according to what you're now depicting to yourself. And it's also not according to any examples of religions, obviously not.

Student: That's the beginning, after all, it's not adhesion, yet, but is it just the beginning of adhesion? 

M. Laitman: No, no, let go of it, it's all incorrect. 

Question (KabU 14): (01:16:04) What is our measure of exertion as it relates to strengthening our choice in faith in the Creator. Specifically, as it relates to the Ten, what is our measure of exertion? 

M. Laitman: That’s not simple, calculating it is simple, we need to take all of our actions and multiply them upon the matter, what we have in every action. By that, we get the intensity of our actions.

Student: Do we increase our desire to do this or is this something we just have to try? 

M. Laitman: Where is it written, “that after he sees that the”

Reader: “Completed his measure of exertion”, in 54? 

M. Laitman: Where was it? 

Student: Yes, item 54. 

M. Laitman: “Once he sees that he finished everything he had to do by the power of the choice, he is rewarded in this world. Then one attains the Providence, meaning the revelation of the face. Then he is rewarded with complete repentance, meaning he adheres to the Creator once more with his heart, soul, and might, as though naturally drawn by attainment of the Open Providence.” Well, what can I say here? “And it's clear that he is rewarded, is sure he will never sin. Like one who attained everything won't cause horrible suffering. And he is confident he won't let go of the commandment. Like a person is sure he won't let go of all the pleasure of this world”, yes. Alright, we’ll keep going. We have the Study of the Ten Sefirot?

Reader: Yes, We’ll move to the next part but first, a song!

Song: (01:19:52)