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

Daily Morning Lesson: October 5, 2025 

Part 1: Recorded lesson - Dec 14, 2021

Baal HaSulam. Shamati 117. Labored and Did Not Find? Do Not Believe

Reader: Hello everyone, in the first part of the lesson, we will learn a lesson from December 14, 2021. The article is Shamati 117, “Labored and Did Not Find? Do Not Believe.”

Reader: Hello, we're going to be reading from the Shamati articles. We're going to start with article number 117, “Labored and Did Not Find? Do Not Believe.” You can find a place for all the materials on our site. You can send questions during the lesson, pertinent questions to lesson will be aired here.

M. Laitman: (00:53) Yes, the topic is very, very important, and it's all completely related to our progress in our work in reaching the purpose of creation, in revealing the Creator and adhering to the Creator, that we will open up to ourselves the true reality that we are like blind, we don't see anything outside of us, and we acquire the quality of the Creator, the force of the Creator to bestow. And with that intention, with that approach, with that inclination, we begin to see the world that is truly outside of us, and not that which we describe now, which like the Zohar says, is as a dream, we were as dreamers. We're like in a dream, and we're not seeing the true reality. So, in order to see the true reality, first we have to have such a desire, and the beginning of this desire is given by the Creator. Those who are given this desire typically arrive at the wisdom of Kabbalah. This is how the upper force designs the fate of those He wants to bring closer to Himself. It's really not people, it's pieces of the soul that have the need to advance to their source, for each and everyone. And so they come to the wisdom of Kabbalah, and here they learn what do we need to learn, what we have to do in order to keep going with the same awakening that the Creator has awakened within us, how to continue with this awakening, step after step, where we need to go, what do we need to do to help each other, all of us and each and every one of us.

So, this whole methodology, this whole technology of how to advance from the initial awakening a person receives from above, and then, of course, with the Creator, and the group, and humanity, and other aspects of awakening that he receives, until he comes to the purpose of his existence. The Creator gives the initial desire, but the person has to add more than the desire he has received, and adding to that desire the Creator gave him, this is what we call exertion, an additional desire we have to awaken by ourselves on top of what we receive in the beginning. It's like when you start a car, so you turn the key in the switch or you hit a button in newer cars, and it turns on. And that's from the battery, let's say. But then, we have to add with our own work, with our own fuel. And that already comes from burning fuel or some other source. So, here, in adding the effort on man's part, it depends on how he goes through the path from receiving the initial awakening from the Creator until he completes the path.

(05:27) In this path, the quality and quantity of the steps that he makes, that's up to the person, to the extent that he realizes himself in the group, in the study, in dissemination. He collects all of that in order to advance, and in the final correction, when he advances, he needs all of those broken vessels, both friends and the world. And that's how he advances. So, we have a small desire at first, with which we come to the wisdom of Kabbalah and to the group, as it says that the Creator put man's hand on the good faith and said, “Take it,” and all the rest depends on the person.

Certainly, the upper force awakens the person, but this awakening comes not directly from the Creator, like the first one, but through the environment. Even if a person is not in it, there's still an environment he fell from when he was broken, when that Kli was broken and now it needs to go back to its corrected state. So, this Kli that awakens, around it, more or less, it's being drawn to the goal. So, there will be more such awakenings, and we have to see where we can obtain the strength and the awakening on our own. And this is what we call labor. How do I search for sources, reasons, forces, desires for progress,  although I don't have any? Why? They are around me. They used to be with me. There was a shattering, the sin of the tree of knowledge, and then they all departed. They all became separated. And so what do I need to do? The main effort, labor, as we learn, is in building the Ten. As much as each one can be inspired by the others, then we can come closer to a state where we awaken ourselves, and all of us together, and that's the main thing. By that, we awaken the Creator, and then, instead of the Creator awakening us, as in the beginning of the path, we each time, awaken Him. This is what's called, “My sons have defeated me.” And that's how we keep adding more and more, more strength, awakening, attraction.

What we achieve by each one being awakened by the others, and also awakening the others on his part in the Ten - by that, we make the effort. And from this effort, we advance. And in this connection, we gradually discover more and more between us, we find the place for the Creator and the connection with the Creator. And also, we have to understand that labor can happen where there is no desire, especially where there is not so much desire. We understand, but we can't, we don't have the strength. This is what we call her “force weakened as a female,” meaning there is some little desire, but the male force is missing. And male, Gever, comes from the word Hitgabrut [overcoming], and that's missing.

(10:06) So that's why we have to awaken each other, and we want, as it's written, same place, same desire, same woman, which means that our desire is exactly for the revelation of the divinity. So we have to receive it together with the friends, “One shall help his friend,” that's how we advance. And so, after we establish the place to make the effort, and the desired shape of that effort that we make, and preferably it is together between us happening, so exertion can happen where there is no desire. That's why sometimes we have an awakening from above, when we feel like it, and we're willing, and we want; and other times we are empty, we lose our spirit, we don't want anything, we don't feel like anything. And then we have to realize that this time is not redundant, it's the time where the Creator gives us an opportunity to build ourselves, to put in the labor in order to help each other and clarify how to yearn for the goal. And for the goal, we have to be as one man in one heart, and the Creator fills that heart that we build, meaning a common desire, our collective desire, and that's how we build the group and the place for the revelation of the Creator.

If we, in that manner, if we approach our awakening, then this awakening on our part is called labor, and that will be the correct labor that will be in order to bestow from each and every one. Ultimately, we come to a desire to bestow to the Creator. And only if we advance in this manner, we come to the initial shape that Adam HaRishon had, that structure, and the result of that will be, I labored and I found, believe. Meaning that we make the right effort, the right labor, and we find the Creator who fulfills us and becomes revealed in us, in the connection between us - light inside the ten Sefirot of the soul. So, everything is achieved only by the power of labor, if we do that labor correctly.

And then what we build in our Ten, our labor with the Creator there, then we begin to also connect to it more groups, Tens, and increase the Kli to a correct structure of Adam HaRishon. That's how we correct this whole shattering until we come to the final correction. This is basically the matter of labor, meaning our whole life comes down to the point where we receive the awakening from above, from the Creator, and then we add to it the awakening from below, from ourselves. And from ourselves, the awakening, that effort to add the awakening from below, that's what we call labor, and the result of that is that we connect and tighten our vessel, our collective vessel, for the revelation, the reception of the upper light, the Creator. That's it. All right, we'll go to a few questions, and then we'll read the article. 

Question (PT 12): (14:58) How do you awaken to give exertion when you have no forces? 

M. Laitman: By connecting to the friends. That's very clear, point blank. There's no other way, and it's going to get more and more like that. A person has to feel like he's falling on the friends' hands, and they carry him like on a stretcher, or they take care of him like a group of doctors that are treating some terminally ill person that they have to revive. 

Question (Merkaz 1): (15:39) What's in our effort that you cannot attain anything without it? 

M. Laitman: Because the Creator only gives the initial awakening, like starting the engine, or starting the car, and all the rest we have to add. And we have infinite fuel and infinite possibilities because we are already built in Tens, so you can't say we don't have that. You have the possibility, you have the opportunity to build yourself with the strength and the matter for it. But the Creator then fills up the space that you build, and that's how you advance. We just have to build the connection between us to be similar to the light, meaning somewhat to bestow. And then the upper light, the Creator, begins to work in the connection between us and changes and shapes us, and we can feel how He works within us, and that's called the revelation of the Creator to the created being. That can happen on the condition that we try to find this style of connection between us that is similar to bestowal, to the quality of the Creator. 

Student: What characterizes the correct effort? 

M. Laitman: Well, first of all, what prevents it? What hinders it is our ego, which was born out of the shattering. And thanks to it, we actually reveal the effort, because if there was no force of resistance, we would not be able to find our work, our addition, that I want it, that I am doing it, that I'm advancing towards the Creator. So that's what we call “Help made against thee.” That's our will to receive, our ego, our evil inclination that the Creator created deliberately, as it says, “I created the evil inclination,” and He also gives you the Torah, the upper light, “I created the spice of Torah.” That's how we work. So we have to work correctly with our ego, as we advance, as we connect, we try to collect all our tendencies towards the Creator as much as we can in order to bestow. And I don't know how to bestow, but if I want to help the group, if I want to integrate in the group as much as possible, bring them together, push them forward with whatever they require, whatever I find that they need, that I can add, so if everyone does that, and puts in that effort, then we succeed.

Question (Tel Aviv 1): (19:12) You said effort to the emotion or to the feeling. The words are nice words, but there's no feeling in the words.

M. Laitman: Try to put in efforts and then you'll see there's a lot of feeling there. Rabash writes about it, too, Baal HaSulam writes about it. There's no such thing in the world that a person can't develop a sense for. It depends on the labor. Look at what happens with a person when he's just born. First, he doesn't hear, he doesn't see, he doesn't respond; it's just a piece of flesh that is barely alive. Its livelihood is just a minimal vitality that flows into that piece of flesh that's born. And then gradually it awakens, and we awaken it, and it begins to gradually awaken all of those qualities and feelings and emotions by which he begins to gain connection with his environment -  seeing, hearing, feeling, touching. Where does it come from? From development, from the effort. 

Student: You said forces. What are forces? 

M. Laitman: Meaning, we have to put in the effort into the connection between us, because in the connection between us we build spiritual organs. More accurately, we don't build them, we actually recover them, we revive them. They were dead, and we put life into them. That's the effort that we make. And then we begin to revive all those different kinds of connections between us. Not in the way that existed in Adam HaRishon, the system that existed initially, there was only light of Nefesh there. This is the system of Adam in the state that's called the Garden of Eden, where it has no clothing, no consciousness. It was such a shape that was designed by the Creator. But when we get there, when we make corrections by our labor, then with the addition of this labor, instead of light of Nefesh, we achieve the light of NRNHY, the complete light, the complete revelation of the Creator in the connection between us.

Question (ITA 4): (22:21) The effort, much more than the result, it's an action of instability in the system. And because of that, the Creator gives us the instability in the system? 

M. Laitman: No. The system, we ourselves need to erect it, to restore it, to recover it. That's our work, to correct it as it's called. And therefore, we need to rearrange the relationships between us as relationships of bestowal, so that we can reveal the system. Before that, it doesn't exist to us. By that, we have to as if be reborn. And then we go through months of birth, pregnancy first, where we feel that we exist as an embryo within the upper one, and so on. The main thing is not to get confused and just follow and realize what we're talking about right now. 

Question (Moscow 1): (24:05) If a person turns to the Creator and begins to be interested in taking all their coarseness and so on, does that depend on the pace of the Reshimot that are emerging? 

M. Laitman: I don't understand your approach, that you want to take all the Aviut out of there. You just have to nullify before the Ten and give them strength as much as you can towards them, but not that you do some actions over them. You have to do actions on yourself in order to join them in the right way. That's basically the work, and not that you take some Aviut out of them. No, that's incorrect. 

Question (Almaty 1): (25:06) Could you please explain, if I understood correctly, the result of my efforts, my reward, is that the force of bestowal awakens in my friends? Eventually, the Creator does not enjoy me, but from the Dvekut in the group? 

M. Laitman: Both this and that. How do I work? How do I feel? But of course, the Creator takes into account the whole Ten. That's how it is. And, most importantly, to be patient and help and support each other, and until we discover the structure of the group, it's not simple, it takes time. And there's a period where the person has to kind of do something, and it's as if he's doing something, but he doesn't yet feel that it goes into the area where he feels. And so it basically is still below the threshold of his feeling. 

Question (Europe): (26:27) This week, we put a lot of efforts, a lot of labor, in the connection between our Tens, the Holland 1 and the Germany 4. How important is it, let's say, to also put a lot of effort, let's say, in the connection between the Tens? Like you see now, we're sitting together with the German groups, the great friends here in Germany, concerning, let's say, what you just explained about the part of labor. 

M. Laitman: I'm sorry to hear such a question from you, because we agreed between us that, first, we are taking care of the Ten, until we feel that this Ten is alive, it exists, and I'm in it, and I'm completely dependent on the support of the friends, and I, myself, see myself only immersed in them. Until we have that feeling, we can't say we have a cell.  And then another cell is another group, and another cell is another group, and then we bring those cells together, and connect them together. But in the meantime, we have to think only about our Tens, each one in his Ten, and not that we begin to play around with all kinds of connections between the Tens. We're still not feeling the essence of the Ten itself, and therefore, all these efforts are only to our detriment. From the whole to the particular. 

Student: We had a, let's say, if you're talking about the preparation of a morning lesson, we are both, let's say, separate Tens, we connect in our Tens, that's true, that's the main importance… 

M. Laitman: No, preparation for the morning lesson can be done however you want, as long as you awaken yourselves. The preparation for the lesson is especially about this renewed awakening towards the general correct connection and the Creator, and even though we need to try to feel a connection between us in the Ten, in our individual Tens, but it's also about connecting to the global Ten of all the students. The Creator is relating to all of us together, and in the lesson, we all connect together, and then from the lesson as we also study the same material, we somehow are making the same kinds of efforts, and so the Creator influences all of us. So with regards to the lesson, it's a different thing. In the lesson, I also have to be connected with all the other groups and with the Creator. But in all the rest of the time, the most important thing is my work in increasing connection between the friends in the Ten. 

Question (Moscow 7): (30:20) You said that the connection between us needs to be similar to light. What does that mean?

M. Laitman: I don't understand what translation you received, but that's not what I said. Of course, we can say that the connection between us has to be similar to the upper light, meaning to the form of bestowal between us. It's like how the children learn from the adults and they mimic their behavior. Similarly, we have to mimic the actions of the Creator, His bestowal. 

Question (Unity 4): (31:24) Could you tell me, please, how to become an artist in our efforts towards the Ten? 

M. Laitman: Exertion, labor, effort and investment, where you go back to all of these things more and more, again and again. And then you see that you're thrown out of it, and then you have to go back to it, and once again, and again. And this way, you will advance and become a master.

Question (Kyiv 1): (32:14) We join this cell, this Ten, this spiritual unit, we dissolve in it, we make such an effort. This spiritual thing, we melt and make this effort. What does it mean that we awaken in it the Creator?

M. Laitman: The Creator doesn't exist. What exists is the upper force, which is not -  that's not the Creator, that's the primordial force that precedes the Creator. The Creator is what we can discover, what we can build through the connection between us. That's what is called Boreh, which means Bo-U-Reh [come and see]. We come to a certain form, and we discover how that form operates. That's what's called coming and seeing. Come and see. And where does it happen? It happens in the Ten. The right connection between the desires to receive, which are in connection between them in the group, they constitute the desire to bestow as a result of their efforts. And the desire to bestow awakens and appears as the Creator, the upper force. And He, to begin with, awakens us and wants to build us and doesn't let us rest, so that we try to achieve connection between us to a greater extent, in a more powerful way. That's what we need to discover, and that's between us, and this is called the Creator. Where do we have that text about come and see? Our guys will look for it. 

Student: It's a force that you begin to feel in the friends, in the Ten, inside, that awakens, that asks, that force is the Creator? Or is it something else? 

M. Laitman: That's exactly called the Creator, that we build Him, that we set up the conditions for His revelation, and the result of our efforts is that we discover Him. How do we discover Him? The upper light, when it dresses in our desires, when each and every desire is willing to concede itself in order to connect with others, so we build such a network of connection between us in the matter, meaning in the desire, so that the light can appear according to equivalence of form with the desire. And then we reveal the Creator from the correct connection between our desires. That's how we discover it. So, it's like, how can it be that the desire reveals the force of bestowal, it's the desire to receive, but if the desire to receive is willing to somewhat make a concession over itself and connect with others, then it works like the light. And that action of connecting with the other desires, to bestow to them, that is called Adam on our part, meaning similar, Domeh, similar to the Creator. That's how we correct ourselves.

Question (Kyiv 1): (35:47) About the first part, you said that this initial desire, like a certain ignition, that's what the Creator gives to each of us personally, and the efforts of every friend need to be aimed towards this individual desire of ours. How do all those initial individual desires that come from the Creator and the efforts of each of us create us to make the necessity to work with the Ten this way? 

M. Laitman: This is something we're going to have to attain. It's a system that you have to find your place in it, integrate with it, and then you will discover it. These things can't be further explained, how we connect between us, how we correct the shattering, and how all these pieces come together and start working as one. They become as though they are one, but the inner resistance between them remains. And so, we connect above the resistance. Therefore, our throughput, our capacity, because we connect above a force of resistance, then the capacity of our connection is called 620 times greater than what it used to be. And that is a sign that indicates that we receive the great light of NRNHY, instead of the small light of Nefesh that existed to begin with. 

Question (PT 19): (37:40) What's the reason, and what's the correct response as a Ten, when we feel that the Creator is bringing us sometimes troubles to our life? 

M. Laitman: Of course, He brings troubles, and There's None Else Besides Him. Where else do they come from? The troubles come from the revelation of the broken vessels that it is now time to correct, and that's why they appear. And so, you need to be willing, ready to accept all these troubles in the right way, be ready for it, so that you can bless for the bad as you bless for the good. And it all depends on the level of Arvut, mutual guarantee, that exists in the group.

Question (PT 31): (38:43) A lot of times friends feel like they're not important, that whether if they give the effort or not, it won't matter, and then they don't even try to put their pedal to the metal, and they don't see any difference there. How does the environment truly show to each friend that without one's effort, you cannot move this? 

M. Laitman: We can talk about it, and basically demand from each and every one that he has to participate. Yes. That's on the one hand. On the other hand, we also have to be patient and wait, sometimes wait a long time, until a friend wakes up. And in the meantime, we invest in him and invest in him, and that's also an investment, it's labor. 

Student: Should we wait and invest in him? 

M. Laitman: To wait, meaning that we accept him as part of all the connection activities we do in the Ten, and even if he can't add, and even if he somewhat disregards it, as far as we can see in the actual work of connection. 

Student: And you have to ask for strength from the Ten? Does it mean that he's giving efforts when he doesn't have the strength? 

M. Laitman: If he doesn't have any strength, how does he ask for strength? You mean that first he has to have a need, and we need to awaken his need so that he asks. Everyone does his part of the work, but in general, the general direction of the work is to achieve connection, and such a connection that our forces of bestowal will all be established in such a network that allows the revelation of the Creator. What's the Creator? The upper light can appear in the network of connection between us, and the relationship between us will be similar, at least to a minimal degree, similar to the same quality of the light.

Question (PT 23): (41:04) Adding efforts means to add the internal intention in the connection that we already have in the Ten, or addition also in acts of connection in the force of the Ten? 

M. Laitman: Each and everything that brings us to more connection, that we invest in it, that's called labor.

Student: But the meaning is to add intention in the existing actions, or to add additional ones? 

M. Laitman: More actions too, yes, more actions too.

Question (Tbilisi): (41:54) How can the Ten reach a state in which the efforts will be considered the reward as the service of the Creator, and then it will already be considered an effort? 

M. Laitman: That's a good question. After we invest in connection between us, and we get closer between us, then we can reach a state where we make an effort, and every effort we make brings us joy, it brings us fulfillment. As Baal HaSulam and Rabash write, that if at first the labor seemed like hard work to us, afterwards we reach a state where we see it as fulfillment, and we don't want anything besides having the opportunity to exert. That is truly the good result that we can attain from our work. And then the whole work inverts from in order to receive to in order to bestow, and then we see great pleasure in each and every investment and effort we make. The work becomes the reward. Very good, Tbilisi, very good.

Question (Turkiye 3): (43:46) Are our efforts is because we want to create the right vessel in order to receive the Torah? If so, then what does the magnitude of our efforts depend on? 

M. Laitman: Very hard to say. There is quantity and there is quality. At first, we certainly need to take care of the quantity because we don't really understand and feel the quality. There is connections and disconnections between us, and then we each time need to try to be in inner connection between ourselves in such a way that the quality of the connection between us will be in order to bestow from each one to each other and ultimately to the Creator. That's it.

Question (Croatia): (44:50) Can we say that it is not possible to feel the Ten and the friends if not for the rejection and Aviut which we reveal between us? 

M. Laitman: It's impossible without the investment. The investment is the vessel that you build. Without labor, it's impossible to build the place to connect between us and to reveal the Creator - it's impossible, only the quantity and quality. That's why we're now facing this article. I labored and I did not find, do not believe. Which means you're not going to come to the finding without the labor. Meaning to find the force of bestowal between you, and that force of bestowal, ultimately, is the Creator. That's how you discover the Creator in a gradual fashion, increasingly. In this revelation, there is an investment on our part, and that's the Kli, and there's His participation in that, and that's the light.

Question (PT 10): (46:15) A friend asked to explain how we correct the shattering and how parts connect. And you said that they seemingly become as one, but the inner resistance remains, and we connect above the resistance. So can we understand what connection above resistance is and that the inner resistance remains? 

M. Laitman: No, that means that we're working on connection. That's it. I have no more to explain here. I can't discuss the system before we have just some sense of it, how the parts come together, how they're established together, how they become one from many, in what sense they do, in what sense they don't. I can't explain all of that. That's something that has to be felt. That's what I told the friend - it's impossible. 

Student: But when you said that the resistance remains between the parts, and we continue to connect above the resistance. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What does it mean that that connection above resistance? What is it? 

M. Laitman: The resistance remains, and we connect above the resistance. By that, we achieve a new intensity, 620 times greater, each time more and more, because we keep the resistance, and on top of the resistance we get capacity. Like in engineering, in technology, where you have some resistance, and you keep the current through the resistance, and that gives you more capacity.

Student: This connection, this power, is it not in parts? 

M. Laitman: No, it's only in connection. 

Student: So, this connection between the parts, it's like the environment, what does it mean that it… 

M. Laitman: It's not in them. When you connect these parts together, and you force them to work together, then all the resistance between them works to increase their power. That turns darkness to light, bitter to sweet, resistance to attraction.  

Student: Where is this thing felt, if it's not in those parts that are contradicted? 

M. Laitman: It is felt in the connection between the pieces.

Student: The connections are new vessels of those parts? 

M. Laitman: It's the same vessels that transcend themselves in order to be connected between them. 

Student: Where is the connection between them felt, what is that Kli? 

M. Laitman: Above them, above themselves, in ten Sefirot of reflected light. Restriction, Masach, Ohr Hozer, the connection and the reflected light from each and every one is the place for the revelation of the Creator, outside the person. That's what we call faith above reason.

Question (Unity 2): (49:59) How to be a guarantor for the friends when you feel that disconnection in the connection. 

M. Laitman: Only read the articles of Rabash and try to follow them every day. I have no more to say on that.

Question (W PT 38): (50:26) How do we not miss the awakening that's given by the Creator? 

M. Laitman: We don't miss it if we each time think of how to be more connected, every moment between us. And of course, we forget about it each and every moment. That's normal. That's a sign that the will to receive is renewed on the Creator's part, every day. And with that, we have to reach a state where “love covers all crimes.” We discover connection above every new state of separation. And each and every day, meaning each and every moment, we discover a new aspect of separation and we're going to have to install a new connection on top of it. 

Question (W MAK 36): (51:28) What practical actions in the Ten help us awaken the deficiency? 

M. Laitman: We discuss these actions many times. The social articles describe everything we have to do here. The labor, we're going to have to discuss the different kinds of labor. This is of course ahead of us. We have to learn and do it. But most importantly is to understand the principle. The Creator each time awakens disconnection between us, disconnection from the material, all kinds of disconnections. And above them, we have to make an effort to renew the connection again and again. 

Question (W MAK 2): (52:18) Why is it felt that our efforts never are sufficient? 

M. Laitman: We still have to make effort until the final correction. But we want to reach a state where our efforts give us the feeling of the Creator, the feeling of connection between us, so that we begin to come from concealment to revelation. And when can we enter the state of revelation? When we can receive it in order to bestow. By that, we bring contentment to the Creator, not to myself. To myself, I want to stay in concealment, and I am making the Masach on concealment on my part in order to bring pleasure to the Creator.

Question (W Laitin 11): (53:25) How will we know that our efforts in the Ten have the correct intention to evoke love towards friends? 

M. Laitman: As much as we can. If we do it together, more or less, it's always correct. That's our state.

Question (W MAK 25): (53:49) How do we define the direction of the effort? Is it based on a rational calculation? 

M. Laitman: The direction of the effort has to be only towards connection between us, mutual bestowal, mutual support, and then we can surely direct that to the Creator. The Creator is the result of the common work between us. We make, we build the concept of the Creator, and that's how we establish this concept until we reveal Him. And then in our reflected light, we build the place for the revelation of the Creator. Before that, the Creator doesn't exist. What exists is only abstract upper light that fills all of reality, but nobody feels it. You want to discover it, then you have to build reflected light. And through mutual bestowal, direct it to the Creator so that the Creator begins to appear in it, based on equivalence. Just as He wants to bestow to us to begin with, if we want to bestow to Him, to that extent, He can appear.

Question (W German): (55:21) I heard that we need to effort where there's no desire. What is our effort when there is an awakening from above? 

M. Laitman: Not just that you have no desire. We have to exert in connection between us, because that's the shape, the form that we can reveal, and that's the form that we can work on, and not that we will imagine to ourselves all kinds of things that are imaginary and just engage in that. We have very concrete, realistic work, renewing the connections between us in such a way that the kind of connection between us, the quality of connection between us, will be, as much as we can, mutual bestowal. And so that will be called the Creator - come and see. 

Question (W Moscow 8): (56:35) How do we work correctly in the center of the Ten where not everyone in the Ten is working in the lesson, and we can feel it in the meetings? 

M. Laitman: That's something you're going to have to work out between yourselves. However you set it up in your Ten, that's what's going to happen. If you don't do it, it's not going to happen. The Ten could be five, seven, eight people even, that are connected together, but they have to take care of the connection between them. Of course, each one does it in his own style, in his own intensity, but that has to happen.

M. Laitman (Source Text/Commentary): (57:28) Okay, I'll read.

Shamati 117. “Labored and Did Not Find? Do Not Believe.” 

The necessity of the labor is a requirement. Why? Since the Creator gives man a present. He wants man to feel the benefit in the present. Meaning that there will be a response on behalf of the person. Otherwise, that person will be like a fool, as our sages said, “Who is a fool? He who loses what he is given.” He doesn't feel what he's given, and that's why he loses it. Because he does not appreciate the importance of the matter, he does not pay attention to keeping the present.

There's a rule that one feels no importance in anything if one has no need for that thing. As the measure of the need and the suffering, if one does not attain it, to that very extent, that he feels pain, one feels gladness, pleasure, and joy at the satisfaction of the need. When he attains what he wanted. It's similar to one who is given all sorts of good beverages, but if he's not thirsty, he tastes nothing, as it is written, “As cold water to a faint soul.” Meaning, there has to be a deficiency first that's prepared, and then we will feel pleasure in fulfilling it. 

Hence, when meals are set in order to please people, there is a custom: We prepare meat and fish, and all sorts of good things. We take note to serve bitter and hot things, such as mustard, hot peppers, sour and salty foods. All of this is to evoke the suffering of hunger, since when the heart tastes a hot and bitter taste, it evokes hunger and deficiency, which one needs to satisfy with the meal of good things. Meaning, before we taste the good things, we first have to awaken in ourselves the bad things in order to awaken the hunger, the desire for the good things.

So here's the question, we don't feel what is in order to bestow, connection, the nature of the Creator, spirituality even, we don't feel a need for it. What we imagine that we want is totally not spiritual. And so, first we have to awaken within us the deficiencies for spirituality, for the revelation of the Creator, and the revelation of the Creator is the revelation of the force of bestowal. And like any revelation, it has to appear within us. That's why it's not simple to reveal spirituality, because it's an opposite world.

(01:01:20) So in order to achieve it, we need a specific deficiency. And so, in the meantime, we take in bitter things, salty things that perhaps are not tasty, but it actually evokes us towards the revelation of the Creator. And no one would ask why do I need things to arouse hunger? After all, the host should only prepare satisfaction for the need, meaning the meal, and not prepare things that evoke the need for the satiation. The obvious answer is that since the host wants people to enjoy the meal, to the extent that they have a need for the food, to that very extent, they will enjoy the meal. Meaning, the sensation of fulfillment can't happen without sensing the deficiency for the fulfillment. And if one has fulfillment, but he has no deficiency suitable for it, then he won't feel any pleasure from the meal. And if he has a deficiency, even a small one, then based on the deficiency, he will feel some fulfillment from the meal. It follows that if he gives many good things, it will still not help them enjoy the meal, due to the above reason, that there is no filling without a lack. Meaning, what do we need to care about when we want to obtain something? Do we have the desire, the deficiency for it? And if we don't, that's what we have to care about. So, many times I hear, “I want, we want the revelation of the Creator, spirituality.” Please, it's not limited. The Creator is filling the whole earth with His glory. The force of bestowal is everywhere, holding us within it. Why don't we feel it? Because we don't want it. We're opposite to it. Why did He create us opposite to Himself? So that we ourselves will awaken, will build within us a desire to attain Him. And it's possible only by building the same qualities within us that He has, and then we can feel and reveal Him. 

Hence, to be rewarded with the light of the Creator, there must also be a need. And the need for this is the labor. To the extent that one exerts and demands the Creator during the greatest concealment, specifically from the concealment when he asks and wants to reveal the force of bestowal, to that extent he becomes needy of the Creator, for the Creator to open his eyes to walk by the path of the Creator. This is called to open his eyes. Meaning that he will see that to advance he has to have bestowal, that this is the only thing he lacks. Then, when one has that Kli of a deficiency, when the Creator gives him some help from above, he will know how to keep this present. Meaning that he has a desire, a deficiency for the Creator. And then it turns out that a person advances not in revealing the Creator to himself but in collecting the deficiencies for the Creator, and he doesn't want to reveal the Creator the same way he thought about it before, in a direct manner. But to him, now the deficiencies for the Creator is all his wealth, his treasure, that's what he wants to collect. When he has Tzimtzum, Masach, and Ohr Hozer, Or Hozer is his attitude, reflected light, his attitude to the Creator, that to him becomes the fulfillment.

(01:06:16) I repeat: then, when one has that Kli of a deficiency, to bestow to the Creator, when the Creator gives him some help from above, he will know how to keep this present, meaning that only deficiency is required to achieve it, to collect it and keep it, not lose it. And that is possible specifically now when the Creator helps us by giving us a state of concealment. And then we don't need to keep it. This is called the Masach, the concealment and the reflected light. And that's what a person fulfills himself with, his relationship to the Creator, his attitude to bestow to Him, to fulfill Him and not himself. Meaning we don't discover the Creator in the sense that light enters the desire. No, we want the Creator to be revealed because He wants us to reveal Him. And it's in our reflected light; so, He doesn't fill our desire, but he fills our intenion to bestow to Him. And that means that we actually work in bestowal. It turns out that the labor is considered Achorayim, [posterior]. And when he receives the posterior, when he builds that, he has a place in which to be rewarded with the Panim, [the face], meaning to be able to bestow, that's our Panim. 

It is said about that, “a fool has no wish for wisdom.” Meaning that he doesn't have that much need to exert to obtain wisdom. That's why he's called a fool. Thus, he has no Achoraim, and he naturally cannot be awarded the discernment of Panim, meaning he doesn't want to receive the revelation of the Creator in the correct way. This is called “with the goodwill of the one who wears it and the one who gives the clothing.” This is the meaning of, “as is the sorrow, so is the reward.” That is, the sorrow, called labor, makes the Kli, so one can be awarded the reward, the fulfillment, the result. Meaning, to the extent that one regrets during the sorrow, and his labor, and his address to the Creator, and as he seeks ways to get closer to the Creator, to that extent he can later be rewarded with joy and pleasure.

Reader: Friends, we're going to move to a live lesson with Rav now, but we'll sing a song first. 

Song: (01:09:35)