Part 2: Preparation to Convention – Connecting to There Is None Else Besides Him

Lesson 4: There Is None Else Besides Him in the Ten

Reader: We're going over Lesson Number Four. The subject of the lesson is There's None Else Besides Him in the Ten. So, we'll read excerpt number two from Maor VaShemesh. 

Reading: (00:30) 2. Maor VaShemesh, VaYechi

The essence of the assembly is for everyone to be in one unity and for all to seek but one purpose: to find the Creator. In every ten there is the Shechina [Divinity]. Clearly, if there are more than ten then there is more revelation of the Shechina. Thus, each one should assemble with his friend and come to him to hear from him a word about the work of the Creator, and how to find the Creator. He should annul before his friend, and his friend should do the same toward him, and so should everyone do. Then, when the assembly is with this intention, then “More than the calf wants to suckle, the cow wants to nurse,” and the Creator approaches them and He is with them, and great mercies and good and revealed kindness will be extended over the assembly of Israel. 

M. Laitman: This is actually – those are the conditions that we can adhere to the Creator with, and in this way, continue to incorporate in Him more and more. The example for it is from as much as we can be adhered to one another, to be in one unity. That is a condition that from within this unity, we can be drawn and come closer to the Creator. He is only directed towards our unity; and if we're not in unity, we cannot see Him, or feel Him, or find Him. And the opposite, the moment we understand unity and want to be in it, we're drawn to it. So, in that same motion, we are coming closer towards the Creator, that's what we have to do. Because after we reveal the Creator in this way, so we have an opportunity to feel the entire creation – what the Creator wants of us, and how we can aim ourselves towards Him. That is actually the path towards attainment, towards private Providence, and general Providence. And to understand that one unique and unified force that exists above us, and is pulling us towards Him. That is what Baal HaSulam wants to tell us, that's it from Lesson Number Four, There Is None Else Besides Him in the Ten”. That was Number Two.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (05:57) In the text, he speaks of the revelation of divinity, and the revelation of the Creator. What is the difference? 

M. Laitman: Actually, obviously, it's important for us to discover the Creator, to acknowledge Him, to know Him, and in this way keep going. But it's also important for us, the moment we feel that we're in, or even before we feel that we're in, under the control of the Creator, we must develop this attitude towards None Else Besides Him. And if a person tries to do it on his own, he has no chance, he has no vessel. But when he leaves the concern of himself, and he only needs to be concerned about the Creator, to know Him, to come close to Him. So from that force of that gathering of the Ten – what we say – a person can reach the feeling of the Creator.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:32) He mentions that Divinity dwells in a Ten, and that certainly if there are more than Ten, there's more of the revelation of Divinity. I have to understand that correctly, that if there's more than, if you have more than Ten, then there's more of a revelation of Divinity.

M. Laitman: We aren't really in this, to begin with, we're divided into Tens, more or less. That's why what we need is to be united within the Tens, each one, and to see each one's private spiritual purpose while being incorporated in everyone. By this, they are going in their connection more and more to come closer to the Creator. 

Student: Is a Congress such a state, if there being more than a Ten? 

M. Laitman: Congress, a Convention, is more than a Ten, it's a different degree, but from the audience being divided into many Tens. So first of all, we need to talk about the Tens, and afterwards, when each Ten unites, so there's already a place to talk about the connection between the Tens. 

Student: So, this effort a person makes to incorporate with the Congress the entire vessel, should it start when? In the Congress? Before? 

M. Laitman: I don't understand, when a person can think how to incorporate? 

Student: In something more than a Ten, the entire Kli, the entire vessel.

M. Laitman: The entire vessel, we're not discussing that, we’re not; but probably after we're done, we've finished doing our connection in the Tens, so then we begin to think, what is there beyond the Ten?  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:20) In the Congress, are there different laws regarding a person's work? 

M. Laitman: Yes, in a Convention, we have a mutual bestowal from all the Tens on all the others, and we need to try and see the difference between the influence of a person to his Ten, and more than that. But actually, the main thing is that we are trying to be as one man with one heart, and that's on the way.  

Student: You opened, you said very beautifully, that the Creator is setting a condition for us is what I heard, that He's guiding us towards his unity, and He's then revealed within that unity. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: But what about states which are opposite to unity? Where's the Creator there? 

M. Laitman: States that are less than unity, you mean in the Ten?

Student: Yes. 

M. Laitman: So, less than that, we aren't learning about, we don't see them as existing, but it's clear to us that in all those states that a person is in, whether alone, or can't connect to others, or. There's a matter of connection in a different form, things that we didn't learn, so all those instances, we understand that they also exist within the Ten. And the Creator organizes all these instances for incorporation in the Ten, or we try to be adhered to a person, meaning one to the other, and in this way we'll come closer and learn. 

Student: But why do we say that the Creator is only revealed in connection? There are many different situations and if I look for the root, the cause for every situation, separation or unity, and I adhere to that, why can't you discover that There Is None Else Besides Him operating in every state, connection and disconnection? 

M. Laitman: Of course, that's how it is, the Creator bestows upon us in all our states, also from separated from everybody, and also in the unity of everybody. But actually, we learn according to what Kabbalists are speaking about us. These are the states that they themselves have gone through. And that's why they are managing us and we have to follow their footsteps.

Student: So, what's right to say: That the Creator is revealed in the connection between us? Because the Creator is revealed in any situation. 

M. Laitman: No, in each and every state we can't discover Him, that's not what's written. But what is written is about the connection between us – from two and more, till Ten, and beyond Ten, and so on. That's how the Creator, that's how He's leading us. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:44) I'd like to continue the friend's question: If there are more than Ten, are we talking about it on the external level? Or is there a matter of inner unity that's implied? 

M. Laitman: The inner force of the connection between people that are more than Ten invites more revelation of the Creator. 

Student: And when we say, Ten, a Ten, there's the corporeal version of it – ten people are on the table. But there's also a deeper inner qualitative definition which?

M. Laitman: There's really a definition as a Ten, that's why sometimes we say that there's only Ten, only a Ten. And sometimes, we take into consideration only the degree of our Ten, to what quality it can reach on its own, and there's more. 

Student: And the quality of the Ten, what does it depend on? 

M. Laitman: First of all, on their desire. Can they really incorporate in that desire and try to be incorporated in a desire, like in a Ten that yearns for unity? That's why this is how we count them, and there are certain states where a Ten is in a connection between them. And along with that, according to their state, they could be in a distance between them. And here, it's the Creator that wants to help them and gives them an opportunity above that relative distance between them. So, He gives them an opportunity to come closer between them. 

Student: With respect to the Congress, how does this formula work? There’s with our Ten, we are as one. But in the Congress, we want to be all of us, all of us as one Ten. What is the right way to relate to it internally? Or maybe it's incorrect? 

M. Laitman: First of all, we need to feel in which state each one is in, in his private Ten. If we have an idea or an attainment on how the Ten can come closer and incorporate to be as one. And according to that, they will receive revelation of the Creator also together. And also, and it'll be clear how we can, if we're drawn to more and more connection above it. How we can divide the degrees of the incorporation and connection between us to measures. To such measures that it'll already be clear to us from it how the Ten is working.

Student: According to what you said, then, for example, we have, let's say we have 45 people who are visiting a Congress, abroad. So, how to connect the matter of the person's own Ten and how the connection is within that private Ten, and all the work is done there? How do we translate that to a connection for that entire group, and the work in the Congress, how to connect all these things properly? 

M. Laitman: We'll learn about it, I'm sure it's before us. For now – the Ten.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:07) To keep the condition of unity, we need to understand what it means. Is it made up of connection between us and connection with the Creator as one? Is that how we can define that condition? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: How do we, together in the Ten, make sure that this condition is always in front of us? 

M. Laitman: We can't restrict the demands of the Creator towards us, as if His demands are for some special Ten; there's a collective and a private state here, we'll learn about it.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:15) How do we identify that the Creator wants to help us in the Ten? Or maybe it doesn't even matter. 

M. Laitman: The fact that we even belong to a world group that wants to be connected as one man with one heart. And to be in such a unity, that in the center of their unity, there'll be a place to reveal the Creator. And it all comes from the Creator, Himself. And in this way, we'll advance. 

Student: Towards the end of the excerpt, he says that only when we finalize, finish the love of friends, then we get to the love of the Lord. What does it mean now? What does it mean to finish the love of friends? 

M. Laitman: We need to reach through the connection between us to such a connection, just as people love, each one loves the other. And along with that, they understand that only their connection, a special connection above the disconnection, in qualities, in relationships. They feel that only such a connection brings them to unity, to a special unity that is similar to how the Creator is connected to creation. 

Student: You said before that we build the connection in the Ten between us according to the inner yearning of the friends. Now, that inner yearning, is that the state that we demand, we push each other forward, and accordingly the Creator assists us? How do we keep actually increasing love of friends between us? 

M. Laitman: We increase love of friends above the feeling of the distance between us –that's one thing and the opposite, that's it. And all our work is actually in the 6,000 years is in this: To come closer to one another and to incorporate in one another. And through that we'll attain the feeling of connection and the reality of the connection.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:07) A practical question which came up in our Ten yesterday, perhaps it's relevant to more Tens: Two of us are flying off to Hungary, some to Mexico, there are others who, because of various conditions, can't be present, and some will be here. So, we had a question, should we connect together at the end of the lesson to summarize the lesson together? Or should we connect and summarize the day together? Or perhaps, we just need to work on the inner connection between us and not take any physical actions during the Congress? 

M. Laitman: In the Ten, or as much as remain here, or also spreads their forces abroad, even though we're around the same topic. But we need to try and see all of us as one, and it's possible, it's possible. We still didn't learn – and I don't know in which lesson we will learn – how a Ten with separate intentions but feel its parts scattered around the world. That still, even though we come from one place and one connection, still we must connect, and how to keep that connection. We'll talk about it, we'll learn about it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:07) I heard you saying that we need to first of all feel what state each one is in within his own personal Ten. So, what does it mean to feel that, what should you do? What should I do with what I feel? If there's one friend who's weaker let's say with respect to the Congress, and another is stronger, what to do with the outcomes, the results of this examination? 

M. Laitman: The results of this examination should bring me a feeling, a general feeling, in which way I am connected to all the groups, all of the world of Bnei Baruch. And how one influences the other; how the general world group works on my private Ten, and the opposite, how does my private Ten work on the world of Bnei Baruch. And here we, we can make changes, make things for the better, and do very big changes. We'll talk about it.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:50) It's written that one should annul himself before his friend, and his friend should do the same towards him.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: So, I understand my personal responsibility, which is to annul myself before each and every friend in the Ten and by which I gain some kind of wholeness. What does it mean that my friend should annul himself towards me? 

M. Laitman: Again, I don't understand? 

Student: It's written that each and every one should gather with his friend and go to him to hear from him something related to the work of the Creator. And he should annul himself before his friend, and his friend should do the same towards him, and everyone should do the same. So, what does it mean that his friend should annul himself, that my friend is supposed to annul himself before me? What does it mean? 

M. Laitman: That you will feel their work, what they're doing in order to be an annulment towards you. And yourself, you can also understand what they're rewarded with, what they receive from this.

Student: To look for their annulment within their efforts? 

M. Laitman: Yes, well, it's not simple, but it'll come. 

Student: It's written that the Divinity dwells in each Ten. So, what does it mean that Divinity dwells within the Ten and how to reach that state? 

M. Laitman: The Ten is a special desire of Ten people; that desire comes from each and every one to the Ten, to their center. That they want to see themselves incorporated in the center of the Ten. And then, when they are in this tendency, so they also feel, as much as the efforts they give, towards a connection together, that effort brings them a new state. That each one feels himself obligated, committed to that feeling – that their connection becomes the most important point that exists in all the world and between them, and that's how you continue. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:16) So, what the excerpt says is that when there's a bigger, stronger field, beyond the Ten, there's more of the revelation of Divinity. And so you can do that work where each friend goes to the other friend, and so on. The work we usually do within the Ten, we have more options, opportunities, to do it. So, just from experience in Congresses, sometimes you kind of get scattered. So, we don't exactly manage to – how can we do this work better this time than usual? Is there such an opportunity? 

M. Laitman: I think that we need to sit with no disturbances, even from the friends from the Ten, from anything. And you should write for yourself some kind of way that you... some path that you want to determine in the Ten. And if you will gather all your tendencies in such a way, it'll be more clear to you where you are, and where you have to get to. As much as I hear in the last lessons, you are prepared for this, actually, how to reach that unity. Just you have to sit together and see all the Tens, that we all have an understanding, a purpose, the means, and you all really want to determine this. 

Student: Today, maybe right now, each one needs to sit and gather his inclinations, as you said. What inclinations, towards connection, all our inclinations? Perhaps we can elaborate on what it means that each one needs to sit and collect his inclination. I don't remember what else you said there.

M. Laitman: What do you want to ask? 

Student: You gave this advice where each one should sit. You said sit by yourself and write down all your inclinations with which you want to, through which you want to connect with the friends. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, the inclinations towards connection, you mean.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Are there several inclinations towards connection? Maybe I don't understand the sentence. 

M. Laitman: We'll learn about it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:06) You said we'll learn about it, we'll talk about it, but there's a practical question here in the air: I have my own Ten. Half the friends, half the members of my own private, personal Ten, they're flying to Congresses abroad to incorporate there. Now, throughout the Congress, I'll be sitting here with the Israeli vessel, they'll be coming here. And everywhere there are Tens, meetings all over the world, it's kind of scattered. So, where do I work? Should I focus on my own Ten above time, motion, and space? Or the environment, the society I'm with right now surrounding me? Or the whole of the world Kli together? Where should I focus my inner intention? 

M. Laitman: We learn that each and every one has a place, right? In the general Bnei Baruch, there's a place. And in the more restricted Bnei Baruch, let's say, the men, right? The Bnei Baruch around the world. We aren't really with them for now, from lack of work between us, between all the Tens. But we need to constantly understand that the true work will be in the connection of all the Tens as one. That's what we're talking about here. 

Student: But I need to work with my Ten despite the friends being scattered all over the place? We're all in the same lesson, right? But what do I think about? Okay, there's a lesson. Even right now at this very moment, two of my friends are in Europe, another friend is in Chile, two of the friends are here. How should I organize all of this inside? 

M. Laitman: You should, in your heart, unite your entire Ten no matter where each of them is right now during the Convention, that's it. Try and be in this way. 

Student: And that's the most important thing I should hold to, them? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: What about the hundreds and thousands sitting here with me in this physical space? How do I relate to them, how do I incorporate with them? What is my work with them? 

M. Laitman: Your work with them, we already talked about it throughout this year. How you need to incorporate with the friends, with the Ten, your Ten, the foreign Tens – if we could say that – except for your own Ten. And all these things should be already in each one's desire.

Student: Before a Congress, should one feel entirely confident, or perhaps one should feel that he has no confidence before entering the Congress? 

M. Laitman: Yes, and no, because until the Convention we are learning everything towards a private person. And before the Convention or close to the Convention, we start discovering what type of work we will have during the Convention in the general connection. And then we need to see as much as there is a relation between the general connection to the inner connection in the Ten, and how we can bring those two closer to one another, that's it. There'll probably be more questions about it during the Convention, when we study.  

Student: Throughout the lesson, I have this question: As we prepare for the Congress, start different types of preparations. There's what we do physically, we go over the study materials. We clear the days, we buy the tickets for the flight if necessary, but there's also this inner anticipation for connection on a different degree. Experience shows that in a congress, there's always something much bigger than we can contain. So, how to prepare internally for the connection that we're going to have in the Congress? 

M. Laitman: We need, I guess, to have a special lesson for that, maybe not even one. Maybe how we locate the Ten as a special body on its own, that exists. And then towards that body, we can work. We’ll do it. 

Student: In preparation for the Congress?

M. Laitman: As a preparation to the Congress. 

Student: Okay, so if we could be more precise here: To prepare the Ten as a body coming to the Congress to do what? Incorporate with other bodies, to create a bigger body? 

M. Laitman: That's a question that we don’t, we can't solve it. Not that. 

Student: So, each one should arrive with his whole Ten within and carry it into the Congress. That's what I'm hearing. 

M. Laitman: Yes, every Ten, again? 

Student: Each one should arrive with his entire Ten within him, to carry the Ten with him, inside of him, and bring it to the Congress.

M. Laitman: Yes, it's for sure that that's how each each and every one has to come that way. As a representative of his Ten. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:09) Perhaps as a continuation to that: It is said that when you want to jump on top of a table, you need to actually jump a little higher, aim higher. So, we need to aim high towards the Congress, but ultimately, you discover connection in the Ten. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Is it right to look at the Congress in that way? 

M. Laitman: We need to see the connection in the Ten as a means to everything we want to attain in the Convention.

Student: So, what first? Should we come to the Congress with a connection already in the Ten? Or do I want to connect to the Congress wherever I am there and with that connection to return to the Ten? I mean, where to aim? 

M. Laitman: How many lessons do we have, friend? 

Reader: In the Congress, we have six lessons – three days, six lessons all in all – two lessons a day.

M. Laitman: Okay, so, I guess we need to check as much as it's enough for us to connect us, together, to one Ten. When are we connecting in that Ten? And what we attain in that Ten? To give it, to ask questions, and to hear answers, short, to the point, and in this way advance. 

Student: So, an individual or a Ten, what should it, how can it make the Congress more successful? 

M. Laitman: What can?

Student: What can an individual or what can a Ten give so that the Congress will be more successful? 

M. Laitman: Each and everyone must first of all be concerned that the general vessel around him will succeed, that's a condition for the general success. What else? To each one remind the others about it. That only by demanding this goal, the incorporation of everyone and everyone. By this, we will be able to also demand of the Creator our success. 

Student: The general vessel, is that the whole world's Kli? Or wherever a person is currently? 

M. Laitman: The general Kli is the world Kli.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:28) The upcoming Congress is a bit different than other Congresses. The upcoming Congress will be a bit different to previous Congresses. 

M. Laitman: What do you think? 

Student: We're mixing, you know, like you shuffle cards, we're shuffling all the friends of the world group. It's not just friends traveling from here, I'm traveling to Hungary, for example. But all over the world, people are traveling from place to place to connect with friends where they live. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So what is special about this shuffling? Because usually we sit within our Ten, our personal Ten, and we're used to working that way. So what's special about the friends shuffling in that way? Veteran friends, new students, everyone's studying in the same way, of course, but what's special? What's the value of this mix that we're doing right now in the World Kli? 

M. Laitman: This mix is the first condition that the Creator gave us. That from within we will scrutinize what exactly the purpose of the connection is. And what we need to demand, what we should pray for throughout the entire time of the Convention; that's what we need.

Student: Now, each one of us has his own personal Ten. Does he bring to the Congress the spirit of his personal Ten? 

M. Laitman: Of course, what else is there to bring? 

Student: And he donates it, so to speak, he adds it to our communal pot. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And in that way, each one brings the spirit of his own personal Ten, and together we begin to construct this communal, this collective Ten. 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:12) it's written that the goal is to reveal the Creator to the created being in this world. In the Congress, what revelation are we aspiring towards? What revelation are we aspiring towards in the Congress? 

M. Laitman: Revelation of the Creator to His created beings. 

Student: What do we want to feel? 

M. Laitman: We want to feel the Creator: How He is being revealed in our common desire – He as the upper one, we as the lower ones. And in this way, we want to feel ourselves connected and organized, and accepted by Him. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:29) It feels to me as though the Creator is hiding within the heart of each friend. Is it more important for me to try to give an example of how I open my heart? Or perhaps to somehow open the heart of the friend? 

M. Laitman: If I understand you correctly, so the question is: Do we need forcefully to take ourselves out of the collective of Bnei Baruch who are studying, waking up at night, and somehow coming close to the Convention, organizing it, or not? You have to answer that.  

Student: I try through incorporation with the Ten, with other friends as well, to open some emotion, to awaken some emotion in our hearts, a true desire to reveal the Creator. So, how to open the heart of each friend so there will be contact? So all the hearts spill and become as one, as an ocean of desire. How to open the friend’s heart?

M. Laitman: Simple words, just as you know to express, that's it; that's not a problem, the Creator feels everything. For us, it's difficult to translate what the Creator wants of us, wants to give us, and more and more to a different language. But with the Creator, Himself, we have no problems. Because first of all, to begin with, He invites the questions in us, and we, already, afterwards, want to understand Him.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:57) We have two days left to the Congress, and you say that as we approach the Congress, the work that should be done in the Congress is revealed. So, perhaps you can point out what we should focus on. Perhaps we need to bring some special study materials to help us develop, delve into the topic? 

M. Laitman: Again?

Student: We have two days, two morning lessons with you until the Congress comes, Thursday.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: Thursday morning, that's the Congress: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, that's the Congress. We're on Monday, today, we have Tuesday and Wednesday to have lessons together. So, I'm asking, what are the right study materials, sources that we should read and open up and perhaps talk about to help us make our work in the Congress more precise? 

M. Laitman: Our work in the Convention is in the connection between us to discover the Creator. That purpose we had more than once in our Conventions. And in that connection, to understand what the Creator is demanding of us, what He wants, what He's expecting, what He's waiting from us. And as much as a person needs to be dependent on his friends, only through that he can be dependent on the Creator in a way that during the Convention, we will find that point of connection between us. And according to that we will find – according to that we can feel that as much as every word, every sentence that we understand in the Torah and the Mitzvot – in everything we were told by Kabbalists, that we will feel what every letter and sentence was where you have to attain from all of this.  

Reader: We will now summarize the lesson together, and then we have some more things we do. We have a few reports with respect to the Congress and so on. But first of all, we will now summarize the lesson.  

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