The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) April 8, 2024
Part 1: Article 926. Come unto Pharaoh.
Reader: Hello, we are reading in the writings of Rabash, volume 3, article 926. “Come unto Pharaoh. You can send your questions through the Kabbalah group. That info is under our Arvut system. Anyone asking in the hall is asked to stand up, hold the mic closer to his mouth, and speak loud and clear.
Reading Article: (00:32) “Come unto Pharaoh…”
“And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Come unto Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may set these signs of Mine within him.’”
We should understand the following:
1) The question in The Zohar: Why does it not say “Go unto Pharaoh”?
2) The question people ask, Why did the Creator need Pharaoh’s consent to bring out the people of Israel?
3) The question people ask, Why did He deny him the choice?
4) The reason “I will set these signs of Mine within him.” If the Creator wants to make signs, why did He have to do it by afflicting Pharaoh through the plagues? He could have made signs in different ways that would not harm Pharaoh.
To explain all this, we first need to bring the words of our sages, “One should always see oneself as half guilty, half innocent. If he performs one Mitzva [commandment], happy is he, for he has sentenced himself to the side of merit” (Kidushin 40b).
This is perplexing: If he has already sentenced himself to the side of merit, how can he see himself once more as half and half? Also, we should understand, if he has committed a transgression, he has sentenced himself to the side of guilt, so how can he say afterward that he is half guilty and half innocent? We should also understand, if he knows that he has few merits, how is it that he is taught to lie and make the similitude of falsehood, which is half and half?
Also, we should understand what our sages said, “Anyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him” (Sukkah 52). If he is righteous, why does he deserve the punishment of having a greater evil inclination?
We should also understand what our sages said, “Transgressed and repeated? It becomes as though permitted to him” (end of Masechet Yoma). Why was it done so, that it would become for him as though permitted? And we also need to understand what our sages said, “To the wicked, it seems like a hairsbreadth, and to the righteous, as a high mountain” (Sukkah 52). Which is the truth?
The thing is that there is an order in the work of the Creator. Because the Creator wants to prevent the bread of shame, a person has to make a choice—to choose the good and loathe the bad. Hence, the Creator can deliver the people of Israel from the exile in Egypt if He gives them only the good inclination and subdues the evil, and then a person will not be in any exile.
However, since the Creator wants man to make the choice, it is required for one to agree that the people of Israel will emerge from the exile of his individuality. This is called “by his own conscious choice.” He must agree that the Pharaoh within him, who is the king of Egypt, will not govern the Israel in him.
Pharaoh comes from the words “Parah [Uncovered] the head,” meaning revealing. That is, by wanting everything within him to be revealed, or he, the king of Egypt, controls the body with the quality of Egypt, afflicting a person when he wants to do something for the sake of the Creator, so when he wants revealing, meaning that everything will be according to his intellect, that his mind will understand that it is worthwhile to do the actions, he permits man to work. This is why Pharaoh asks, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” and “What is this work for you?” With this force, he controls the Israel in him.
Israel means Yashar-El [straight to the Creator], meaning that everything he does will be directly for the sake of the Creator, meaning in order to bestow. This is as our sages said, “‘There shall be no foreign God within you.’ Who is a foreign God within man’s body? It is the evil inclination” (Shabbat [Sabbath] 105b). This means that if he should do something for the Creator, it is foreign to him to do such actions. This is the opposite of Israel, who wants specifically straight to the Creator [Yashar-El].
Hence, in order to bring Israel out of the governance of Pharaoh king of Egypt, meaning to agree to make a choice, so he can do everything in order to bestow, we need specifically the light of Torah, as our sages said, “The light in it reforms him.”
By this we will understand why it is written “Come” and not “Go.” “Come” means “Come, the two of us together,” so that one will not think that he can submit his evil inclination by himself. Rather, as it is written, “Man’s inclination overcomes him every day. Were it not for the help of the Creator, he would not overcome it.” Hence, one should not say that he cannot defeat his evil, for he must believe that the Creator will help him. This is the meaning of “Come.”
The Zohar asks about what our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.” It asks, “With what is he aided?” and it replies, “With a holy soul. When one is born, he is given Nefesh [soul] from the side of a pure beast. If he is rewarded more, he is given Ruach [spirit].” Thus, each time a person is purified and overcomes his evil, a higher degree is revealed in him, which is called “Torah” or “the light of Torah.”
By this we will understand why the hardening of the heart comes to him, and why if the Creator wants to make signs, he must suffer for no reason by the hardening of the heart. The thing is that when a person wants to walk in the ways of the Creator on the path of truth, he should not say that he is incapable because he has many iniquities, since this is not about coming before the courthouse of above when he is judged on how many merits he has. Here it is about a person himself, judging himself, and saying that he cannot make a choice, since choosing is between two equal things between which he should decide.
For this reason, they said that one should see oneself as half guilty, half innocent, since the Creator deliberately made it so that the good and the bad will always be of equal weight, so he can decide. Hence, if he performs one Mitzva [commandment] and has decided to the side of merit, he becomes great.
At that time, they say, “Anyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him.” In other words, the Creator deliberately hardens his heart so he would be able to make a choice once more, for in each choice, a person gains the letters of the Torah. Thus, the signs are not for the sake of the Creator but for the sake of man.
It therefore follows that the hardening of the heart is only for man’s sake, for by this he will be rewarded with the letters of the Torah. Although during the fact, a person does not feel all that he is meant to feel, when he has completed his discernment, what he has done all that time is revealed to him at once.
Like the allegory that Baal HaSulam once gave, this is similar to a person earning nothing but zeros. Each time, he sees that he has earned only zero. After the first time, he has one zero. After the second time, two zeros, and after the third, three zeros, until he accumulates many zeros. But at the end of his work, he earns a one. Thus, he might have one zero with the one, which is only ten, or he might have one million, or more. It follows that each time, letters of the Torah are added in him. This is the meaning of “that I may set these signs of Mine within him.”
Re-reading original source: (14:38)
We'll read it a second time. Come unto Pharaoh. “And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Come unto Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may set these signs of Mine within him.’”
We should understand the following:
1) The question in The Zohar: Why does it not say “Go unto Pharaoh”?
2) The question people ask, Why did the Creator need Pharaoh’s consent to bring out the people of Israel?
3) The question people ask, Why did He deny him the choice?
4) The reason “I will set these signs of Mine within him.” If the Creator wants to make signs, why did He have to do it by afflicting Pharaoh through the plagues? He could have made signs in different ways that would not harm Pharaoh.
To explain all this, we first need to bring the words of our sages, “One should always see oneself as half guilty, half innocent. If he performs one Mitzva [commandment], happy is he, for he has sentenced himself to the side of merit” (Kidushin 40b).
This is perplexing: If he has already sentenced himself to the side of merit, how can he see himself once more as half and half? Also, we should understand, if he has committed a transgression, he has sentenced himself to the side of guilt, so how can he say afterward that he is half guilty and half innocent? We should also understand, if he knows that he has few merits, how is it that he is taught to lie and make the similitude of falsehood, which is half and half?
Also, we should understand what our sages said, “Anyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him” (Sukkah 52). If he is righteous, why does he deserve the punishment of having a greater evil inclination?
We should also understand what our sages said, “Transgressed and repeated? It becomes as though permitted to him” (end of Masechet Yoma). Why was it done so, that it would become for him as though permitted? And we also need to understand what our sages said, “To the wicked, it seems like a hairsbreadth, and to the righteous, as a high mountain” (Sukkah 52). Which is the truth?
The thing is that there is an order in the work of the Creator. Because the Creator wants to prevent the bread of shame, a person has to make a choice—to choose the good and loathe the bad. Hence, the Creator can deliver the people of Israel from the exile in Egypt if He gives them only the good inclination and subdues the evil, and then a person will not be in any exile.
However, since the Creator wants man to make the choice, it is required for one to agree that the people of Israel will emerge from the exile of his individuality. This is called “by his own conscious choice.” He must agree that the Pharaoh within him, who is the king of Egypt, will not govern the Israel in him.
Pharaoh comes from the words “Parah [Uncovered] the head,” meaning revealing. That is, by wanting everything within him to be revealed, or he, the king of Egypt, controls the body with the quality of Egypt, afflicting a person when he wants to do something for the sake of the Creator, so when he wants revealing, meaning that everything will be according to his intellect, that his mind will understand that it is worthwhile to do the actions, he permits man to work. This is why Pharaoh asks, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” and “What is this work for you?” With this force, he controls the Israel in him.
Israel means Yashar-El [straight to the Creator], meaning that everything he does will be directly for the sake of the Creator, meaning in order to bestow. This is as our sages said, “‘There shall be no foreign God within you.’ Who is a foreign God within man’s body? It is the evil inclination” (Shabbat [Sabbath] 105b). This means that if he should do something for the Creator, it is foreign to him to do such actions. This is the opposite of Israel, who wants specifically straight to the Creator [Yashar-El].
Hence, in order to bring Israel out of the governance of Pharaoh king of Egypt, meaning to agree to make a choice, so he can do everything in order to bestow, we need specifically the light of Torah, as our sages said, “The light in it reforms him.”
By this we will understand why it is written “Come” and not “Go.” “Come” means “Come, the two of us together,” so that one will not think that he can submit his evil inclination by himself. Rather, as it is written, “Man’s inclination overcomes him every day. Were it not for the help of the Creator, he would not overcome it.” Hence, one should not say that he cannot defeat his evil, for he must believe that the Creator will help him. This is the meaning of “Come.”
The Zohar asks about what our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.” It asks, “With what is he aided?” and it replies, “With a holy soul. When one is born, he is given Nefesh [soul] from the side of a pure beast. If he is rewarded more, he is given Ruach [spirit].” Thus, each time a person is purified and overcomes his evil, a higher degree is revealed in him, which is called “Torah” or “the light of Torah.”
By this we will understand why the hardening of the heart comes to him, and why if the Creator wants to make signs, he must suffer for no reason by the hardening of the heart. The thing is that when a person wants to walk in the ways of the Creator on the path of truth, he should not say that he is incapable because he has many iniquities, since this is not about coming before the courthouse of above when he is judged on how many merits he has. Here it is about a person himself, judging himself, and saying that he cannot make a choice, since choosing is between two equal things between which he should decide.
For this reason, they said that one should see oneself as half guilty, half innocent, since the Creator deliberately made it so that the good and the bad will always be of equal weight, so he can decide. Hence, if he performs one Mitzva [commandment] and has decided to the side of merit, he becomes great.
At that time, they say, “Anyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him.” In other words, the Creator deliberately hardens his heart so he would be able to make a choice once more, for in each choice, a person gains the letters of the Torah. Thus, the signs are not for the sake of the Creator but for the sake of man.
It therefore follows that the hardening of the heart is only for man’s sake, for by this he will be rewarded with the letters of the Torah. Although during the fact, a person does not feel all that he is meant to feel, when he has completed his discernment, what he has done all that time is revealed to him at once.
Like the allegory that Baal HaSulam once gave, this is similar to a person earning nothing but zeros. Each time, he sees that he has earned only zero. After the first time, he has one zero. After the second time, two zeros, and after the third, three zeros, until he accumulates many zeros. But at the end of his work, he earns a one. Thus, he might have one zero with the one, which is only ten, or he might have one million, or more. It follows that each time, letters of the Torah are added in him. This is the meaning of “that I may set these signs of Mine within him.”
M. Laitman: Questions?
Question (Petah Tikva Center) (29:02) What are these letters of the Torah that enter the person? What are these letters of the Torah that are accumulated in a person?
M. Laitman: Again,
Student: What are these letters of the Torah that are added or accumulated in a person?
M. Laitman: The letters of the Torah are the signs through which the Creator explains to a person who is He, what is He, what state is He in, so on and so forth. The letters of the Torah are the forms of connection, communication between man and the Creator, or the Creator and man.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:01) In relation to the choice, first he asks the question why the Creator took away from Pharaoh the choice, and in the middle of the article he says that the Creator wants the person to make a choice by his own decision, consciously. And he explains that if the person says that he understands it with his mind and everything is revealed, then Pharaoh allows him to do it, and if he wants to go above it, then Pharaoh doesn't let him do it. What does it mean that a person chooses consciously, how can he choose? Also, he says that it is equal, so what is this whole matter of choice here?
M. Laitman: A person always chooses to be above his desire and how it can direct him.
Student: Also, I think that yesterday we learned that after the first five plagues, the Creator takes away from Pharaoh the choice. What does that mean? It means that in this process a person suddenly receives an upper reason, something happens to him, there is a certain point of shattering, or what?
M. Laitman: Well, that's not immediately.
Student: The point is that we always say we have to go above reason. Here it says that one has, by his own consciously or by his own reason, he has to make a choice.
M. Laitman: A choice, consciously, by what he attains, that's already above his reason.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:58) Rav, what does it mean to earn a zero, each time to earn a zero?
M. Laitman: He doesn't make himself anything more than a zero, and as many zeros as he can set for himself, then his above reason is higher.
Student: Does it mean to hide my ego? Can we say it that way?
M. Laitman: Maybe for the time being. For the time being.
Question (Petah Tikva Center) (32:42) He asks in the beginning, why do we need Pharaoh's consent? I didn't understand what the answer was. Why do we need it, why is Pharaoh's consent required?
M. Laitman: When do they ask Pharaoh?
Student: All work is until Pharaoh says, let my people go. Until then they don't go, they remain in Egypt. Why do we need Pharaoh if there is the Creator?
M. Laitman: Pharaoh stands before the Creator. A person needs to decide who is he asking? Before whom is he bowing down?
Student: So, the question stands even stronger. In the end he waits until Pharaoh tells him to go out. Why does he simply go out? Because the Creator told him that he can exit, that's it.
M. Laitman: A person decides.
Student: If a person decides, why does he need Pharaoh's consent?
M. Laitman: A person decides. He is standing in the middle between Pharaoh and the Creator. And then he decides.
Student: I understand. I know the story. Moses stands there seemingly between the Creator and Pharaoh. If so, why do we need Pharaoh to say, okay, go away. That's it. He will go against his will. I do we care if he wants us to stay in Egypt. If the person decides, let's go out. That's what I'm asking. Why do we need Pharaoh's consent?
M. Laitman: The person has to come to a state where also even the Pharaoh says to him, go out.
Student: Why? What is this needed for? Maybe I'll ask differently, because I think the confusion, maybe at least in me, is who is this Pharaoh inside of me? Forget about the story that there is the king of Egypt and all that. Who is this Pharaoh that I need his consent? Who is this Pharaoh inside of me so that if he doesn't agree, I can't get out?
M. Laitman: The evil inclination inside a person.
Student: Who is he in the world of discernment in the work? There is a point in the heart, the intention to bestow, the intention to receive.
M. Laitman: Before the Creator, against the Creator.
Student: He's the intention in order to receive?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, until the intention to receive says, go out or actually cancel me, what does it mean to come out in the internality of the person? That this intention is actually canceled.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Until this intention says that you can cancel me, or I don't know how to say it, hopefully I'm saying it correctly, the person cannot get out? The person doesn't shift from the intention to receive to the intention to bestow? We need the agreement, the consent of the intention to receive in order to get out of it?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: I don't get it. Why is it so? And if so, why do we need the Creator? So, the person is there in the middle, he learns a little bit about the Creator, what is the intention to bestow, he learns a little bit about what is the intention to receive, maybe not a little, maybe a lot, and then he needs to get the agreement, the consent of the intention to receive in order to shift, in order to bestow. Why do we care about this intention to receive? I want to destroy it, to get rid of it. Why do I need it to agree?
M. Laitman: You cannot without the consent of Pharaoh, you cannot leave Egypt. More than that, Pharaoh ultimately pushes them outside of Egypt.
Student: It's true, according to the story, that's how it is, and I still don't understand why, what for, what's in it?
M. Laitman: What's in it? Both the force of the Creator and the force of Pharaoh work in a person in a single direction, to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. Except, the Creator is according to the same line of the upper force, and according to the Pharaoh, it's against him but he does it himself. Pharaoh is doing double the work.
Student: One work he does is to hold Israel in Egypt and not let them come out. On the other hand, he increases in them the desire to shift, to bestow.
M. Laitman: He opens the gate to go out.
Student: The more force, and I'll use the word hates, I don't know if he should use another word, but hates the intention to receive, this hatred gives him the strength to shift, or the intention to bestow, something like that. Is there a better way to say it?
M. Laitman: No, you say it, we can wait.
Student: Maybe a continuation question, what makes Pharaoh, who is an egoistic control, that controls the person suddenly to become persuaded and let the people of Israel go out of Egypt? What brings him to that?
M. Laitman: Israel takes away the control from him. Israel takes away, seizes control from him. He loses his control, his rule, and then he begins to recognize the actions of Israel to such a degree that he opens up the gate and unlocks the gate for them.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (39:40) I think it's interesting what you said that he's afraid that Israel will take over. On the other hand, it says here that they're afraid that Pharaoh will take Israel and rule with Israel, meaning there's the opposite fear here.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: He expresses fear that Pharaoh will govern with Israel, meaning it's the opposite.
M. Laitman: That he will subdue Israel and Israel will work for the sake of Pharaoh.
Student: What's wrong with that?
M. Laitman: What's wrong about that it's all against the Creator?
Student: The Creator wants the created beings to have pleasure, delight, so he can take Israel with Pharaoh and let them enjoy.
M. Laitman: He doesn't consider it pleasure.
Student: He doesn't think it's pleasure. This is the person's choice to see if he's operating with Pharaoh and Israel through pleasure or punishment, suffering. Meaning that the help is focused on Israel's choice to get out of Egypt. That's the point?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:05) We'll continue this scrutiny. The shifting. What should be the decision? The shifting each time.
M. Laitman: Connection. Bestowal. That's what Pharaoh demands from Israel.
Student: Well, it seems that there are states in which it appears as though the Creator is sabotaging the person. When he wants to succeed by himself, he hinders him in all kinds of ways. And then he sees that he's fading. Then he turns to the Creator out of helplessness. The question is, when a person turns to the Creator out of helplessness, is that what it means to decide?
M. Laitman: Also, in the end, the Creator decides.
Student: And this appeal out of helplessness, the question is, this appeal does it come from a place of, I don’t know, how should I explain it? When a person turns out of helplessness, is that a correct appeal even? Because the Creator spoiled his path? He doesn't turn to him because he sees him as great. He turns to him because he has no choice.
M. Laitman: That's even better.
Student: Why is it better?
M. Laitman: Because you come to the final scrutiny.
Student: But he's doing that out of lack of choice, not by his own choice that the Creator is great and ruling.
M. Laitman: It doesn't matter. Whatever is revealed to him, that's the end of the line, the end of the path.
Student: How do we cope at that moment with the shame? Because a person thinks that he can do it by himself. And then he fails, and he sees that he has to come to the Creator. There is an unpleasant feeling in that. You feel as though you're taking advantage of the Creator. Someone great wanted to help you and you said, I don't need you, I can do it by myself, on my own. Then you try to do it on your own, and you see that you cannot. Then you have to bend your ego and come back to him. It's an unpleasant feeling.
M. Laitman: An unpleasant sensation? I wouldn't say so. If the fact that a person wanted and he now receives, he's happy about it. He thinks about it as a form of redemption.
Student: Even though I come to him from a place of lack of choice, I don't come to him because he's great.
M. Laitman: You start reluctantly, but gradually you see that it's not only about the choice, but rather I truly want it.
Student: The moment that we hold on to it, in spite of the discomfort, the feeling that truly you come to him, you came to that person because you were forced to come to him. You didn't come willingly, but the fact that you continue and hold on to it, later the Creator helps you to see him as great, or he gives you help in that.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:35) The Pharaoh, the ego was already ready in an earlier stage to let Israel go, but his heart was hardened, and he writes that I may set his signs of mine within him. And he says it's for the benefit of men, all of these plagues, it's for the benefit of men, because this is what inserts the signs of the Torah into the person. One decision and another decision add up to the tokens, the signs, the letters of the Torah. How is it to men's benefit that he gets all his blows, and then he gets the completion?
M. Laitman: He receives the letters of the Torah, and not blows, that's what's important for him.
Student: But it's felt as blows, as plagues.
M. Laitman: It's felt as the letters of Torah, more and more. The Torah enters the heart, the person's heart, and he uses it in this way, and he wins.
Student: What does it mean? What exactly enters into the heart of the person?
M. Laitman: He starts using these letters to bend his heart, each time, a choice, and then his heart becomes full with the letters of Torah.
Student: He felt even beforehand that he's willing to bow, to bow down in the direction of the Torah,
M. Laitman: But now he acquired all the letters, all the letters, all the signs. He understood the acts of the Creator by walking on the path of above reason.
Student: The person, well, Pharaoh said even before, okay, I get it, I had enough, I'm willing. The Creator on his side says, no, it's not enough. So, there is an addition here.
M. Laitman: he needs to open man's heart, which is Pharaoh's heart, until a person sees that there's only bad in it, only evil.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:10) To continue, it turns out that the decision is not some action that I do, but rather it's an annulment. When I annul myself before the upper force, before the Ten, through them I later receive the letters of the Torah, and this is what influences me.
M. Laitman: But you decide.
Student: Yes, but it's through my knowledge, it's not through some actions that I search for.
M. Laitman: The annulment is the action, it's a very strong action.
Student: Okay, this is clear, but from here comes the question, where comes the force to annul? Because you feel you receive a certain greatness, you have some understanding, oh, I have Pharaoh and I have a good inclination, a bad inclination, I need to decide, what am I going to do? In the end, you really take a step back. From where do you get this power to annul?
M. Laitman: Certainly, from above, certainly from the Creator. Of course, you get it by yearning for it, and there's nothing more to add.
Student: The question is, if a certain state comes when you should reach a complete annulment of yourself, when you enter a certain flow along with the Creator, when you see that all the time there are these forms of resistance, back and forth, back and forth.
M. Laitman: It's all in order to straighten a person.
Question (PT 23): (48:55) When Pharaoh agrees to let them come out of Egypt, is it because Pharaoh sees some gain for himself in that?
M. Laitman: Ultimately, Pharaoh does everything without any choice in the matter. The evil inclination in a person that has to determine its state, each and every one, every time.
Question (New York 2) and (Ashkelon 2): (49:29) It's written that it is like a person earning only zero each time, only at the end of his work he earns a one, so should we reach a state where the work itself is a reward, what is this one that comes after all of the zeros?
M. Laitman: The Creator, the Creator, the connection with the Creator, that's what the person attains.
Student: What does it mean that they came out of their own exile, the exile of his own individuality?
M. Laitman: He was closed in himself, living in himself, dwelling in himself, and he saw the end of the path, and the end of the path, and now.
Question (Women PT 38): (50:25) What exactly is the point of the true evil inclination and what exactly does it mean to work for the sake of the Creator?
M. Laitman: When a person leaves himself, and is connected to the Creator, ties himself to the Creator so that all his goals, everything the Creator has, is important for him, only that is important to him, then he makes it.
Question (Women NY 4): (51:14) It is written likewise we should understand what our sages said, if one transgressed and repeated it, it becomes permitted to him, why was it so that it becomes permitted to him? The question is, how can we avoid it when we repeat the transgression, it becomes as permission?
M. Laitman: By that, he took this transgression upon himself, and he's incorporated in it, he's working from within it, and in this action that he was in, he can't simply go through it, every decision, every correctness, to be independent, separate,
Student: How to avoid the fact that it becomes permitted, does it require a greater personal effort, or does it depend on the Ten?
M. Laitman: No, no, no, he has to get back to it, and do this path from the beginning.
Student: That's it for now.
M. Laitman: (52:56) I want to say about this that it's a very important article, although it's short, of course we would love to hear more and more discernments from Rabash, but it's extremely important. He speaks precisely of the point, within reason, above reason, within the exile, above the exile, and we insist on it. Now, we are actually standing there, we are now standing on the border. That's why we need to try and read the article several times, repeat it more and more, truly, daily.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:28) I want to ask about the text, more than once I heard Rav say that in order to understand the text you have to feel it, how to approach such text, how to aim the heart.
M. Laitman: Read it again, more and more in different states, individual states that you're going through, until it penetrates. Even if you don't know exactly what you're reading, the heart doesn't respond, and also the head doesn't quite grasp, doesn't quite absorb it, but nevertheless it does enter, and later on you will feel the benefit. Okay?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:41) There's a feeling that a person doesn't even belong. Man is just a function of the connection with the Creator if I understand Rabash correctly. The Creator teaches not the person, but rather the evil inclination, how to correctly use man to be in connection with him. And when he blocks his oxygen, Pharaoh has to kick him out and use him correctly, release man from his control. Otherwise, he feels that he will never get anything. Meaning, there's an educational work of the Creator on Pharaoh, and man is simply a function of their connection.
M. Laitman: There is something to that, yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (56:11) A person needs to agree for the people of Israel to come out of their own exile. We talked about coming from agreement to decision. A person discovers that he has habits in him, and those habits keep him in exile. And he already agrees that these habits are disturbances, they disturb his connection. Now, from the point that he agrees that they are disturbances, to overcome these habits, how do you make this leap? How do you decide this? How do you reach an action?
M. Laitman: First of all, by prayer. Prayer. When a person turns to the Creator, asks that the Creator will not leave him, that he will not go far away, that he will direct him on his path towards redemption.
Student: In the prayer that a person makes, his request to the Creator, how does he ask? What is his attitude toward these habits, these disturbances? What is he asking from the Creator relative to those disturbances?
M. Laitman: He asks the Creator, well actually, you have to scrutinize it.
Student: This is a personal prayer?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:14) He writes that the choice has to do with two equal things, and he has to decide. That's why a person who seems to have, in a sense, there are two conditions here for the decision. He has to see himself half guilty, half innocent, and when there are two equal things, he can make the decision. The question, how a person can place himself between these two things, half guilty, half innocent, because he always justifies himself, he feels he has more privileges, or he feels worse. This equality between two things, how to reach it, this equal weight.
M. Laitman: I can't tell you, you have to discover it, then you will see. What does it mean to be in that state of half and half?
Student: He writes later on that if he made that decision and reached a scale of merit, then the Creator burdens his heart so he can continue the work. Then it's clear the Creator is doing that. If he reaches the scale of merit. A person can and should aim himself if he feels more privileged to search for.
M. Laitman: A person can't count or measure these merits or transgressions in which direction and how much. A person can't do it.
Student: Do we have to search for this point of equality between guilty and innocent? A person has to reach it or ask the Creator to bring him there?
M. Laitman: We can't do it by ourselves. Prayer, it's about prayer.
Student: Prayer and what? Also, prayer, and what else?
M. Laitman: The help of the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:00:36) Can we also arrange it in such a way that this is a person in the Ten?
M. Laitman: What?
Student: Here when he says that people of Israel will come out of exile, he will agree that Pharaoh will not rule over the quality of Israel. So, a person sees that he's holding his friends, not letting them out of Egypt,
M. Laitman: This is how one should think. Each and every one in the Ten.
Student: He says in the end about zero and the one, also has article number 30 where he's talking about that the friend is one and I'm zero, or I'm one and the friend is zero. This is the work each time when Pharaoh's hardening of the heart increases, increasing that.
M. Laitman: Yes, there are many exercises in that.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:50) Also about this state half guilty, half innocent, how do we reach a state where he doesn't let me sleep? It's written that the Creator did it on purpose, so there will always be an equal weight between good and bad. So, what is that state of not letting me sleep?
M. Laitman: What does a person want?
Student: He wants to adhere to the Creator, to come out of the bad.
M. Laitman: So, when does he feel that he cannot sleep?
Student: When he wants it and he can't get it. It's also equal, but he has a deficiency.
M. Laitman: Let's say that this is how it is.
Question (Turkiye 4): (01:03:17) What is the relationship between the people of Israel who want to get out of Egypt and the organs inside a person?
M. Laitman: The organs within the person are not the organs in my physical body that I have my chest, this bone, and I have that bone, but rather these are the individual desires that exist within a person in which he feels to what extent they're carrying him in order to receive and they're hindering him from attaining in order to bestow. That's it.
Question (Unity 4): (01:04:23) A question in the text. The ones who comes to purify is aided in what? In the Holy Soul. Because from birth they give him the soul from the side of sanctity. If he is rewarded more, they give him Ruach. I heard that we have no more than a soul than the beastly soul. Here it says from birth.
M. Laitman: The birth of the soul is when a person receives his soul.
Student: You can't understand it simply.
M. Laitman: Certainly, you can't understand Rabash's text like that.
Question (Turkiye 2): (01:05:27) How to awaken from the sleep that the author is trying to put us into? How to wake up from it?
M. Laitman: How to awaken from the sleep?
Student: Awaken to work.
M. Laitman: It's through envy, lust, and honor. A person must awaken these qualities that influence him. Envy, lust, and honor. This is possible only to the extent that he is inside the society. Under no circumstances should you exit the society. But rather, as much as possible. More and more, awaken the ego within him. And then he will wake up.
Question (Beer Sheva): (01:05:54) I'm going to read two paragraphs here. I have many questions. I'm going to ask one. “To explain all that, we have to start with what our sages said. A person should always see himself half guilty, half innocent. If he makes one commandment, he judges himself to the scale of merit. He asks how he has decided himself to the scale of merit. How can he see himself again as half and half? And again, he has to understand if he committed a transgression, he has sentenced himself to the side of guilt. So how can he say afterwards that he is half guilty and half innocent? He should also understand, if he knows that he has few merits, how is it that he is taught to lie and make the similitude of falsehood, which is half and half?” My question is, from these two paragraphs, do we need to understand that the Creator sends us according to Hesed, that one commandment is enough to bring us on the path of correction, on the path of the Creator?
M. Laitman: There's always one mitzvah ahead of you.
Question (Kyiv 1): (01:08:31) Rav, you said that the letters of Torah help decide the heart, the heart surrenders, thanks to the letters of Torah. How does it happen? How do you subjugate the heart? How do the letters of Torah subjugate the heart?
M. Laitman: Because the heart is the desire, the general desire of the person, and the letters of the Torah are essentially upper bestow over our heart, and then our heart surrenders.
Question (KabU 7): (01:09:28) In the text it says it's repeated and even permitted. Does that mean that the Creator gives us more of the same of what we don't correct until we can feel it as help against, that it is for our own benefit?
M. Laitman: Yes. Yes.
Question (Baltia 4): (01:10:23) It is written in the article that the Creator gives a person a recognition of good and evil. It's clear about the evil because we reveal it more and more. But what is the good that is being revealed?
M. Laitman: We see that the Creator helps.
Question (Volga) (01:10:51) Rabbah writes about Pharaoh in the middle of the text. That's why the Pharaoh asks, who is the Creator that should listen to him? Also, what is this work to you? With this power, he governs the quality of Israel in him. Can you open it up. What is he talking about? With this power, does he govern with these two questions?
M. Laitman: Yes, by these two questions.
Student: So, maybe I don't understand something. In what way does Israel build the intention?
M. Laitman: Against it.
Student: For the sake of the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Women Ukraine 2): (01:11:51) A question from a friend. When the Creator wants a person not to have shame, a person has to choose the good and depart from evil. We learn that a correct prayer starts and ends with gratitude. That's why there is a feeling that to choose the good is first of all the gratitude, but my heart doesn't know yet. Is true gratitude something that can relieve us from shame and exile?
M. Laitman: In principle, apparently so, but we need to try.
Student: How to reach true gratitude?
M. Laitman: You can delve into this now. Try to find an answer. You have to find it by yourself.
Question (Women Latin 24): (01:13:08) The article speaks of the plagues; the blows Pharaoh has dealt. What are those plagues, the blows, the disturbances on the way, or the changing states on the way?
M. Laitman: The blows, the plagues are disturbances on the path. These are states that we have to go through. And they direct us precisely how to reach the place that the Creator intends for.
Question (Women Toronto 1): (01:13:43) It says the Creator deliberately made it so that the good and bad will always be equal. So, how should this equality impact our work in the Ten? How does this help us with our work in the Ten?
M. Laitman: It doesn't help us. We need to constantly hold ourselves and aim ourselves towards the good.
Question (Haifa 3): (01:14:31) We learned that the Hebrews would receive the upper light, so the reason that they don't free the people of Israel is that we would receive the upper light. That's why Pharaoh didn't free the people of Israel. Why did he free the people of Israel all of a sudden?
M. Laitman: Because the Creator decided. That's why Pharaoh did it.
Question (Latin 6): (01:15:23) He said the Creator gives us each time more problems and we need to understand it as a help against him, all the problems that the Creator sends us. How do we need to interpret the current state in Israel and all these problems as a help against him? Because it's supposedly more help from the Creator.
M. Laitman: Let's hope that it's also for our good and that we will be able to see the end of the state for our best.
Question (Hadera 1): (01:16:19) I would actually dispute what the friend said that the friend said that a person is passive and only helps the Creator to work with Pharaoh as much as I understood.
M. Laitman: No, no.
Student: It seems that the Creator is also in Pharaoh, that he simply, by these two things, Pharaoh, and the opposite of him, he is kind of molding the internality of a person. And a person just needs to come to the free choice, that his part that he takes always under the governance of Pharaoh and leads it to the and asks to bring it to the governance of the Creator. That's what it seems to me.
M. Laitman: Okay, I heard.
Question (Latin 1): (01:17:13) It’s written in the article that anyone who's greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him. How does incorporation happen between friends if there's no equivalence of form?
M. Laitman: Incorporation takes place according to our prayer and according to the actions of the Creator. That's it.
Question (ITA 1): (01:17:52) What do we need to do to realize the help of Pharaoh to exit Egypt? Do we need to ignore him or to hear Pharaoh in order to hate him?
M. Laitman: We need to hear Pharaoh and to do as much as possible against what he said. Then we can understand how the Creator is conducting everything and what we need to do. How to be in partnership with the Creator. All right?
Question (Women Hasharon 5): (01:18:44) You said that come to Pharaoh because they have made his heart stricter. You said that both us and Pharaoh wants us to why burden his heart and not soften his heart in order to exit Egypt.
M. Laitman: Pharaoh doesn't want us to exit Egypt, even in the simple story. It's clear to us how he wanted to hold us there. But in the end, when he sees that it just brings him trouble, he agrees that we will exit.
Student: Who brought him the problems?
M. Laitman: It comes through Israel. That's why first of all, he wants to get rid of Israel.
Question (Turkiye 8): (01:20:05) In Egypt, the people of Israel refuse to receive Pharaoh. They actually refused to take the control of the Creator, and therefore they wandered in the desert for so long. But Pharaoh wants to subjugate everything to himself. He wants to control everything. He wants to be like the Creator. It seems like also in us there's this desire to subjugate the Creator and for him to do what we want. Is that correct to look at things in such a way?
M. Laitman: Yes, that's what you discover correctly. Our evil inclination wants to control everything. Who's the Creator that I should listen to? That's what he asks.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:20:52) You were asked earlier whether a person can see that he's holding his friends that have not exited Egypt. You said that each and everyone needs to think that way in the Ten, that he is holding on to the friends that have not exited Egypt.
M. Laitman: Well?
Student: What does that mean that I'm holding the friends that have yet to come out of Egypt?
M. Laitman: You need to tell yourself that the fact that they still are in the exile of Egypt, that's also your fault.
Student: What am I not doing well?
M. Laitman: You're not opening the opening for them to come out.
Student: And what do I need to do?
M. Laitman: To think for them, to pray for them.
Student: But I'm also in Egypt.
M. Laitman: It doesn't matter. For them, you're willing to do everything before for yourself.
M. Laitman: That's it. Good, good.
Question (Latin 4): (01:22:24) Why is Pharaoh's strategy to be revealed as the ruler? He doesn't hide. He actually is revealed as our ruler.
M. Laitman: How can he determine anything if he doesn't show himself as big and strong as a ruler? Of course, that's his nature.
Question (ITA 1): (01:23:34) All the times that I cannot connect with the friends, there's a strange person in the heart of a person. What are the actions that help a person come out of some state?
M. Laitman: The more you can connect to the friends and the Creator and ask that he saves us.
M. Laitman: We're done with the article. Come to Pharaoh. OK.
Reader: We're going to move to exile and redemption. But before that, we'll sing a song.
Song: (01:24:25)