The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) March 5, 2025.
Part 1: Baal HaSulam, Shamati 6. What Is Support in the Torah, in the Work?
Reader: Hello, we are learning from the writings of Baal HaSulam, the articles of Shamati, Shamati Number 6. “What is Support in the Torah in the Work”? You can find the study material on our site, Sviva Tova, and in the Arvut system. You can also send us questions live through the site. Again, in the writings of Baal HaSulam, the articles of Shamati, Shamati Number 6, “What is Support in the Torah in the Work”?
Baal HaSulam, Shamati 6. What Is Support in the Torah, in the Work?
Reading: (00:43) When one learns Torah and wants all his actions to be in order to bestow, one must try to always have support in the Torah. Support is considered nourishment, which is love, fear, elation, and freshness and so on. One should extract all this from the Torah, meaning the Torah should give him these results.
However, when one learns Torah and does not have these results, it is not considered Torah since Torah refers to the light clothed in the Torah, as our sages said, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice.” This refers to the light in it, since the light in it reforms him.
We should also know that the Torah is divided into two discernments: 1)Torah, 2) Mitzva [commandment]. In fact, it is impossible to understand these two discernments before one is awarded walking in the path of the Creator by way of “The counsel of the Lord is with those who fear Him.” This is so because when one is in a state of preparation to enter the Creator’s palace, it is impossible to understand the path of truth.
However, it is possible to give an example that even a person in the preparation period can somewhat understand. It is as our sages said (Sutah 21): “Rabbi Yosef said, ‘A Mitzva protects and saves while practiced. The Torah protects and saves both when practiced and when not practiced.’”
The thing is that “when practiced” refers to when one has some light. One can use this light that he obtained only while the light is still with him, as now he is in gladness because of the light that shines for him. This is discerned as a Mitzva, meaning that he has not yet been rewarded with the Torah, but elicits a life of Kedusha [holiness] only from the light.
This is not so with the Torah: When one attains some way in the work, one can use the way he has attained even when he is not practicing it, that is, even while he does not have the light. This is so because only the illumination has departed from him, but he can use the way that he attained in the work even when the illumination leaves him.
Still, we must know that while practiced, a Mitzva is greater than the Torah when not practiced. When practiced means that now one receives the light. This is called “practiced,” when one receives the light in it.
Hence, while one has the light, a Mitzva is more important than the Torah when one has no light, meaning when there is no vitality of the Torah. On one hand, the Torah is important because one can use the way one has acquired in the Torah. On the other hand, it is without vitality, called “light.” In a time of Mitzva one does receive vitality, called “light.” Therefore, in this respect, a Mitzva is more important.
Thus, when one is without vitality, he is considered “wicked,” since now he cannot say that the Creator leads the world in a manner of “The Good Who Does Good.” This is called that he is called “wicked,” since he condemns his Maker, as now he feels that he has no vitality, and has nothing to be glad about so he can say that now he thanks the Creator for giving him delight and pleasure.
One cannot say that he believes that the Creator leads His guidance over others in a manner of good and doing good, since we understand the path of Torah as a sensation in the organs. If one does not feel the delight and pleasure, what does it give him that another person has delight and pleasure?
If one had really believed that Providence is revealed as good and doing good to his friend, that faith should have brought him delight and pleasure from believing that the Creator leads the world with a guidance of delight and pleasure. If it does not bring him vitality and joy, what is the benefit in saying that the Creator does watch over his friend with a guidance of good and doing good?
The most important is what one feels in one’s own body—whether he feels good or bad. A person enjoys his friend’s pleasure only if he enjoys his friend’s benefit. In other words, we learn that with the sensation of the body, the reasons are not important. It is only important if he feels good. In that state, he says that the Creator is “good and does good.” If one feels bad, he cannot say that the Creator behaves with him in a manner of good and doing good. Thus, precisely if he enjoys his friend’s happiness, and receives high spirits from this, and feels gladness because his friend feels good, then he can say that the Creator is a good leader.
If one has no joy, he feels bad. Thus, how can he say that the Creator is good and does good? Therefore, a state where one has no vitality and gladness is already a state where he has no love for the Creator and ability to justify his Maker and be happy, as is appropriate with one who is granted with serving a great and important King.
In general, we must know that the upper light is in a state of complete rest, and the whole expansion of the holy names occurs by the lower ones. In other words, all the names that the upper light has come from the attainment of the lower ones. This means that the upper light is named according to their attainments. Put differently, one names the upper light according to the way in which one attains it, meaning according to one’s sensation.
If one does not feel that the Creator is giving him anything, what name can he give to the Creator if he does not receive anything from Him? Rather, when one believes in the Creator, every single state that one feels, he says that it comes from the Creator. In that state, one names the Creator according to one’s feeling.
If one feels happy in the state he is in, he says that the Creator is called “The Good Who Does Good,” since this is what he feels, that he receives good from Him. In that state, one is called Tzadik [righteous], since he Matzdik [justifies] his Maker (the Creator).
If one feels bad in the state he is in, he cannot say that the Creator is sending him good. Therefore, in that state one is called Rasha [wicked], since he Marshia [condemns] his Maker.
However, there is no such thing as in-between, when one says that he feels both good and bad in his state. Instead, one is either happy or unhappy.
This is the meaning of what our sages said (Berachot 61), “The world was not created, etc., but either for the complete wicked or for the complete righteous.” This is because there is no such reality where one feels good and bad together.
When our sages say that there is in-between, it is that with the creatures, who have a discernment of time, you can say in-between, in two times, one after the other, as we learn that there is a matter of ascents and descents. These are two times: once he is wicked, and once he is righteous. But at the same time, for one to feel good and bad simultaneously, this does not exist.
It follows that when they said that the Torah is more important than a Mitzva, it is precisely when he does not engage in it, meaning when he has no vitality. Then the Torah is more important than a Mitzva, which has no vitality.
This is so because one cannot receive anything from a Mitzva, which has no vitality. But with the Torah, one still has a way in the work from what he had received while he was practicing the Torah. Although the vitality has departed, the way remains in him, and he can use it. There is a time when a Mitzva is more important than Torah, meaning when there is vitality in the Mitzva and no vitality in the Torah.
Thus, when not practiced, meaning when one has no vitality and gladness in the work, one has no other counsel but prayer. However, during the prayer one must know that he is wicked because he does not feel the delight and pleasure that exist in the world, although he makes calculations that he can believe that the Creator gives only good.
Yet, not all the thoughts that one has are true in the way of the work. In the work, if the thought leads to action, meaning a sensation in the organs, so the organs feel that the Creator is good and does good, the organs should receive from this vitality and gladness. If one has no vitality, what good are all the calculations if now the organs do not love the Creator because He imparts them with abundance?
Therefore, one must know that if he has no vitality and gladness in the work, it is a sign that he is wicked because he is unhappy. All the calculations are untrue if they do not lead to action, meaning to a sensation in the organs that he loves the Creator because He imparts delight and pleasure to the creatures.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:17) He writes support in the Torah is nourishment, love, fear, freshness, elation, etc., but we also learn that the Creator increases a person's evil inclination, the desire. What do we get from the Torah?
M. Laitman: What you receive, it means you receive it from the Creator and you try to feel, feel that. Either you feel good or you feel bad, and what you feel, you feel that you receive it from the Creator, that there's none else besides Him. Then, a person needs to either call himself righteous or wicked according to his own feeling, and this is how you advance where, in each and every moment, you examine the Creator's attitude to you. Accordingly, you determine who you are; righteous or wicked. According to what we learn, our goal is to reach through the light of the Torah, reach a state where one feels close to the Creator which means righteous, and try to maintain that feeling throughout all his days.
Student: How does a person turn what he receives from the Creator, from the Torah, into good?
M. Laitman: Say it again.
Student: How does a person turn what he receives from the Creator, from the Torah, into good?
M. Laitman: By understanding that he's receiving it from the Creator, and the Creator is good that does good meaning, with respect to the person, all he has is an attitude of good that does good. If the person is unable to feel the good that does good from the Creator, then he is called “wicked”.
Student: If a person doesn't feel elation and freshness as a result of the study?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What is the problem?
M. Laitman: The problem is in the study itself.
Student: What?
M. Laitman: From the Creator, only good comes out. If one doesn't take it as good, in his actual feeling in his organs, then he hasn't positioned himself correctly towards the Creator.
Student: He writes: “The Torah, whether practiced or not practiced, protects and saves”. What is the Torah that protects and saves while not engaging in it, while not practicing it?
M. Laitman: The light that comes to us from the Creator is always according to the desire of its source, the Creator, to wanting to advance us to good. Therefore, a person who feels that he doesn't have this good, he's not receiving this goodness, then it's a sign that he's far from the Creator. This must change him, direct him, differently.
Student: How does the Torah protect and save while he is not practicing it?
M. Laitman: When he's not engaged in it, it brings him darkness, unpleasantness. Then, for lack of a better choice, he engages in it until it changes.
Student: Baal HaSulam writes that he feels good only if he enjoys his friend is feeling good. Actually, it's only his own feeling. Why is it important for me what the friend feels if what's important is what I feel in the perception of reality?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Why do I care? Why is it important for me if the friend feels good or bad?
M. Laitman: What's important for me is that the whole world will feel itself as good, because that is truth. Therefore, one doesn't stop himself and doesn't leave his tendency to change himself until he feels the good and delight of the influence of the Creator.
Student: I don't know what the friend really feels, if he feels happy or unhappy. I have my own perception of reality. I know what I feel.
M. Laitman: True. According to what you feel, that's how you turn to the Creator and you ask Him to relate to the whole world as good that does good.
Student: To relate to the whole world as Good Who Does Good, or to correct my perception that I have to see that He is acting as The Good Who Does Good?
M. Laitman: You could say that.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:04) There are two means to connect to the Creator here. One is called Torah. The other is called Mitzva or commandment. What are these means, instruments?
M. Laitman: If a person relates to the upper force as Good That Does Good, and that's how he feels that he relates to Him, that's one thing. Second thing is that, even though the upper force is good that does good, but he feels it differently, then this means he doesn't feel the Creator, rather he feels the concealment.
Student: What does it mean to engage, to practice a commandment?
M. Laitman: To practice a commandment means that in every state he's in, he feels that he's in contact with the Creator who is The Good That Does Good.
Student: This connection itself covers everything for him?
M. Laitman: Yes, if he has contact with the Creator and he feels the Creator as good that does good, what else can he demand?
Student: What does it mean to practice Torah or to engage in Torah?
M. Laitman: To practice the Torah means that he practices the Torah in hopes that by his practice he will come to a state where he feels the Creator, only, as good that does good.
Student: What is the Torah and what does it mean to practice it?
M. Laitman: To practice the Torah means to try and read the Torah and understand that it is all the Creator's relation to the created beings.
Student: Let's say, we're working in the Ten, we're doing something on the path - is all of that called practicing Torah?
M. Laitman: I don't know what you do in your Tens.
Student: Let's put some order in this. Being in contact, in connection with the Creator is called a Mitzva [commandment].
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Practicing the Torah is not connection with the Creator? What is the difference between them?
M. Laitman: What does it mean to practice the Torah? If a person reads the Torah, discusses it, that means he practices it.
Student: Why is he doing this?
M. Laitman: That too is a question. Meaning, to practice the Torah means that a person is already in contact with the Creator, and the Torah becomes a means that brings him closer to a connection with the Creator. That it is correct, where he reveals the Creator as Good That Does Good
Student: Now the question is: I think the commandment is clear, if he engages in his connection with the Creator - it covers everything. If he doesn't practice it, he doesn't have it, it disappears. What is it in the Torah that remains, he calls it “the way” remains? What is it in the Torah that, even when you don't practice it, something of it remains?
M. Laitman: You could be doing an action and that action ties you to the Creator. Then, it means, it is called that he is doing a Mitzva [commandment]. You could be in contact with the Creator, which is referred to as “Torah”, where it shines for him, doesn't matter what state he's in. The person has to try and always be in a state where he feels the Creator, and whatever He sends to him, whatever the Creator sends the person, to accept it as good that does good.
Student: What is it in the practice of Torah that is stable, that remains even when you don't practice it?
M. Laitman: It means that he's in a state where it doesn't matter what he feels, how he feels the relationship of the Creator to him. He always accepts it as good that does good.
Student: Is this the power of the Torah, that it gives him some constant connection to the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:52) I wanted to ask, what is “the way” he's talking about?
M. Laitman: We learn that we begin our contact with the Torah from the states where we're opposite, where we're far from the Creator, where we don't feel the Creator at all, until we start entering some connection and, through that connection, it leads us to contact with the Creator that grows tighter and tighter. This is what a person also has to long for himself.
Student: Is this “the way” he's talking about here? He writes since, from his father, he has no vitality, he cannot receive anything, whereas with respect to the Torah, he still has a way that is left in the work from what he received while practicing the Torah; although the vitality departed, the way remains in him. What is the way? The way is the connection that he had?
M. Laitman: The connection, that he always has to examine himself to see whether the actions and states he's going through are bringing him to greater and greater connection with the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:56) I still don't understand the difference of discernment between Torah and commandment. I'm in the midst of an activity for connection that we're trying to do, like in a congress or something. Is this Torah or is this a commandment?
M. Laitman: If you accept it as a command from the Creator, it's a commandment. It's a Mitzva.
Student: That's what I understood until now, that the activities we do, the actions we do are called commandments, the connection between the friends. What is this thing called Torah where he says that's separate? Like, can I practice the Torah without doing a commandment?
M. Laitman: Torahmeans what you feel from the Creator which leads you to adhesion with the Creator. Then, you're in contact with Him to the point that you feel constant contact with Him.
Student: So, there is a state where I perform a commandment. I don't feel it, I don't feel if I have connection or not. The Torah and the commandment feel connected, not separate, and the whole article kind of distinguishes between them.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How do we shift from one to the other? Are they connected or are they not connected?
M. Laitman: If you feel that there is a relation from the Creator towards you, and you don't feel it as good or, somewhat, you feel it as bad - this indicates that there is some disconnect here. Meaning, this connection can only happen while you're practicing an action called Mitzvah and it comes from the Creator, and you respond to Him in the same way, and thus you become more and more connected.
Student: Yes, that's how I understand it, that makes sense. You perform a commandment, you feel good, you feel bad, but it creates connection with the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What is the Torah and why is it something else?
M. Laitman: The Torah is called the general light, the light that reforms, which you wish to be connected to, connected to this light in all your states. That's it.
Student: The Torah, is it the intention? It's more connected to the intention, to what a person would like to achieve? It has to be connected to the reforming light at any state, and a commandment is more of an action? That's the difference between them? One is an act and the other is an intention?
M. Laitman: Now, I don't understand you.
Student: I apologize. I simply cannot understand still what is a Torah and what is a commandment. I understand each one separately, but why does he distinguish between them? I was sure I was practicing commandments, and either I get to the light or I don't.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Why talk about them as two separate things? They are connected to each other at the core. I don't receive the Torah if I don't perform a commandment. I can't just sit there and get the Torah, or maybe I don't understand.
M. Laitman: To receive Torah, you have to prepare your vessels, and preparing your vessels is already a Mitzva [commandment] where you set up all your vessels so they're ready to receive the Torah.
Student: The commandment comes before the Torah, always?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:28) Can something be both Torah or commandment depending on a person's relation to it? What connection he reveals to the Creator? Is this what determines if it's a Torah or a commandment?
M. Laitman: Yes, it depends on man's attitude.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:52) According to what I understand, if a person has illumination, he feels good in his vessels, and he knows it's coming from the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: This is a state where he has commandment. There's another state here where, even if he doesn't have a feeling of good in his own vessels, he still has some way in which he can work and reach a state where he has illumination. He has something internal, something like “a way” he has inside that he can use. How do we acquire the Torah? How do we acquire this way, so it is always inside us, so we can always, even when we don't have illumination, in both states, we will always be able to work toward the Creator? How is this acquired by a person? Because we're always dependent on ups and downs. If you have an ascent, you justify; if you don't - you're a complete wicked. How do we acquire the Torah?
M. Laitman: The Torah is acquired through a number of actions through which you connect to the Creator where you feel the upper force as Good That Does Good, that is pulling you, guiding you. So, in that, you begin to be connected to Him.
Student: You said, when he feels or doesn't feel, so it depends on that. But here it seems like in the Torah, it no longer depends on a person feeling good or bad, not according to one's vessels that are full or empty, but because he has something beyond it, something solid, stable, as we said before. That stable or steady thing that he feels is something very… A person always wants to have the ability to be in the right work. How is this acquired in the vessels of the created being? Where is it?
M. Laitman: It exists in the will to receive. Everything is through the desire.
Student: Yes, but there are vessels that become full or empty, and accordingly, a person relates to the Creator. And there is something that is beyond these vessels, beyond these vessels of the will to receive. The raw, simple will to receive that justifies when it's full and condemns when it's wicked, when it's empty.
M. Laitman: No, only in the will to receive, because in that desire, he examines himself if he's even in the right track towards the Creator or not, to what extent, at what level?
Student: What in the end gives the Torah in a person, builds in him this way, is it the increment of connections? Can you explain what brings us to it?
M. Laitman: What leads us to connection with the Creator?
Student: To have the Torah.
M. Laitman: That's all according to the roots within the person. Does a person have a foundation, a connection with the Creator?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:17) He connects the thought, and the act, and the feeling. He says all the calculations are not true if they don't lead to an action, meaning to a feeling in the organs. So, what's the connection between the thought, the feeling, and the action?
M. Laitman: He's telling you a state where a person does feel something in his organs, meaning a clear sensation with respect to the person. That is a clear state.
Student: And in order to come to feel, do I have to have an action?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What is an action, an act?
M. Laitman: An act means that you are trying to reach the same act as the Creator.
Student: It's always confusing for us. Is an act something toward the Ten, an act on myself, I do something on myself? What is an act?
M. Laitman: An act, that depends on your intention.
Student: I made some calculations, I thought about something. So, I'm thinking, I'm in intentions, I want things to be directed in some direction. Can it come to the feeling or does it have to go through some action? This intention, does it have to go through some action?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, what actions are we talking about here?
M. Laitman: An action of bestowal, to resemble the Creator.
Student: I can't just settle for a thought, for an action in order to come to feel, it's not enough?
M. Laitman: Not enough.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:26) He talks about the Torah and the commandments, he says in the preparation period we can't really know what it is, but he gives an example. And then he says that basically a commandment is the feeling that is a result of the influence of the light, and the Torah is what remains after the light, when you don't feel the light anymore but only some way that remains of it, right?
M. Laitman: Let’s say.
Student: And then he continues and talks about the inner feeling of a person. In the beginning he says, it's not enough that you say: Okay, well, He's good to others. If you don't feel good, he talks about how you condemn the Creator, and he says that there's this feeling that you're wicked, so your way out of it is a prayer. What is that prayer? What should I ask?
M. Laitman: Prayer means that you wish through your actions to get close to the Creator, to resemble the Creator.
Student: In other words, if I don't feel the good and the delight and pleasure that the Creator bestows upon the world, I have to ask to come closer to Him?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Me? Or us, the Ten?
M. Laitman: No, let's talk about you.
Student: I have to come closer to Him, I have to ask Him - bring me closer to You?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And that's not egoistic?
M. Laitman: No.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:11) A person who is learning, he is in a Ten, he learns Torah, and we can even say that the intention is to draw the light in it, not just to study. And he feels the good that he receives, that he receives it from the society but not necessarily from the Creator. So, he doesn't feel a good illumination specifically from the Creator, but the society, the Ten lifts him. And yet, he feels a little bit of good, and for a long time, a lot of difficulty, heaviness, even for years. How does he maintain that state? How does a Ten help him break that state, hasten time?
M. Laitman: He joins the action of the entire Ten. And he tries to be like them so that he feels that he's with them in some sort of external adhesion, and then he tries to also ask for the internal adhesion.
Student: On the face of it, he's in everything with a Ten. And what is this internality that he has to ask for or adhere to?
M. Laitman: The internality is that they all feel they're undergoing the same actions, and they complement each other.
Student: And should the Ten itself have some special request in that state? Because it also feels a kind of, maybe, heaviness, because it's been going on for a long time.
M. Laitman: They have to examine what state they're in, what they had before, and what are they turning to now. And accordingly, they advance.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:34) Should the ways of the Torah be diverse? That if a person finds a certain path, or if a person finds a certain path, he can use it all the time.
M. Laitman: The same path? Could be, I don't know.
Student: Because it says that if he has the vitality of the Torah, he should remain with the commandment all the time. But if he doesn't have illumination, he should use the Torah. But in terms of the ways, we constantly look for diversity. The question is, should we look for diversity? Or if you have a path, it's enough, just walking it all the time and obtain connection, and that's what's important.
M. Laitman: However he feels.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:34) Are there actions of Torah and actions of commandment?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How can we know if this act we're doing now, this activity, if it's Torah or commandment?
M. Laitman: The aspect of Torah is a general thing. The aspect of commandment is that a person determines in a certain time, certain state, his direction. It could be a new direction.
Student: He says, Baal HaSulam, that until he's rewarded with walking in the ways of the Creator, it's impossible to understand the two discernments.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How can we walk in the ways of the Creator?
M. Laitman: How to be rewarded with it? You have many books where it's written about these states that you can depict where the Creator exists in these states, and if then you also wish to perform the same actions, then you should be getting closer to them in action, in practice.
Student: He talked about three discernments: righteous, wicked, and medium, in between. What is this in between?
M. Laitman: Every person can be in any of those states.
Student: What exactly is the state of in between? The righteous is clear, the wicked is clear. But the in between, that's not quite clear.
M. Laitman: The intermediate is, probably, in both this and that.
Student: At the same time?
M. Laitman: No, not at the same time. One time - this, that and the other time.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (58:37) What's bad about darkness if darkness leads to prayer, and elation leads to forgetting about the Creator?
M. Laitman: There is no good nor bad. It's all in order to direct us to get closer to the Creator, to understanding the Creator. That's it.
Student: That means that in a state of wicked, there is no deficiency?
M. Laitman: Why? There is.
Student: Because when I'm wicked, I turn to the Creator, I look for correction, or I turn to the Torah. It's great. And when I'm elated, I forget about everything, I attribute all to myself. We constantly praise joy, but joy doesn't lead us to connection with the Creator, as much as I understand it.
M. Laitman: I don't understand what state you're referring to. You're in a certain state. Okay, what's ahead of you?
Student: Let's say, now we're talking about the Congress. I was inspired by the Congress. I enjoyed the Congress, but I forgot about the Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Everything comes to me, everything is good.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: That's it. It seems to me like in the darkness, darkness is the right place for us. It's great.
M. Laitman: Yes, but what's next? Other than darkness, do you wish to see some ray of light?
Student: Yes, but if I see the ray of light, I immediately become full, satiated, and I lose the connection.
M. Laitman: Not necessarily. It depends on what kind of ray. Perhaps, it leads you to a state where you scrutinize all kinds of states you've had, and that’s you are facing, and then you're choosing what's the right direction.
Question (Women MAK): (01:01:18) It's written that when a person wants to come to a state where all his actions are in order to bestow, he should try to always have support in the Torah. What are the real supports in the spiritual work?
M. Laitman: That's awakening, upliftment, correct sensation, clarity.
Question (Women PT 11): (01:01:56): What does it mean to organize himself, to position himself correctly during the study, so that the study brings him vitality?
M. Laitman: Yes, and?
Student: How does he position himself correctly?
M. Laitman: It's written in many places that we have to be in contact with the friends, and try to reach one place, one action.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:18) I'll give an example, maybe it's not accurate, but just to try to understand.
M. Laitman: Go ahead.
Student: At the Congress, we drew a line, we had connections, some felt. There was elation, as he said in the beginning, but perhaps, many friends after the Congress are in a state where they have no vitality. I want to try to understand some point here. He says, when there is no vitality, the Torah is more important than a commandment, because a commandment that has no vitality in it, he cannot receive anything from it. I want to talk about us. What does it mean? Now, let's say, we have no vitality, so I will continue to do a commandment from which I receive nothing. What does it mean? He said, I don't want to make mistakes and just waste time. He says, the Torah is more important when there is no vitality, because he can hang on to some way that he obtained. A commandment at that time is not important.
M. Laitman: It doesn't shine.
Student: It doesn’t shine because he can't receive anything from it. So, what is he trying to say? What does it mean on our path?
M. Laitman: What he writes could be on our path as well.
Student: Now, after the Congress, I have no vitality. So, what does it mean that I practice a commandment from which I receive nothing at this point?
M. Laitman: You're not seeing through what action you can be fulfilled with what illumination that will attract you along the path.
Student: What does it mean that I will turn to the Torah when there is no vitality? It is good?
M. Laitman: In the path of Torah, you want to be on that path, and that this path will ultimately lead you to a connection with the Creator.
Student: And then he adds and says, at a time when engaging in it, when he has no vitality and joy, he has no other choice but to pray and he has to know when he prays that he is wicked.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: So, the Torah in the end brings a person to see that he has to pray to the Creator to correct something in him?
M. Laitman: He will correct in him the discernment that makes him feel as wicked.
Student: Let's say, at the Congress we had a great connection - friends succeeded more to think about the friends, to pray for the friends, to come out of themselves toward the center of the Ten. What does it mean that now, when I have no vitality, I am trying to implement this way in my Ten?
M. Laitman: Well?
Student: I went back to the Ten after the Congress. You also said two days ago, you will feel that you are more separated now.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Now we want to take this state and raise it to the next level. And we understand that this thing called commandment, to draw light, isn't working right now. So, what does it mean that we convene in the Ten, and want to build from the way called “Torah” a lever to lift us to the next state?
M. Laitman: You have to find by what you can jump yourself upwards.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:08:04) I want to ask about the connection between us. He mentions that if a person believed that the Providence is revealed as good that does good in his friend, that faith should have brought him delight and pleasure because he believes that the Creator leads the world in a manner of good and doing good. And then he says that if he only says and doesn't believe, it's worthless, because he doesn't feel it. And he connects it to the way of Torah. How can we work in this between us, on obtaining this faith? Because it's not felt like it, even the opposite. If I feel the friend's sorrow, I can't justify the Creator, sometimes. And with joy, it's difficult to connect to it, when you feel bad to connect to a friend's joy. Perhaps, it's even more difficult than when you're happy to connect to a friend's sorrow. So, on our path, how can we use the connection between us precisely in order to rise and feel the light and the joy?
M. Laitman: Pray together to the Creator to give you a new state, new place.
Student: Does faith depend on the friends in the Ten, or is it a person's personal work?
M. Laitman: No, it's collective.
Student: So, only in the connection between us we aim together toward that same direction. Can we feel it?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:13) Previously we talked about actions. I wanted to ask, what is defined as “an act”?
M. Laitman: Our act or the Creator's act?
Student: Ours.
M. Laitman: Our act is that we make an action in our desires, and then in our renewed desires, let's say, we feel a changed state.
Student: We also learned that an act leaves an impression. And I remember that when we were disseminating, handing out papers, you said when you give the paper, it's registered, this physical act, even without thinking, without anything, it's registered. So, when we do things with our hands and legs in the Ten for the friends, for the sake of the friends, does that also become registered?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Is there a connection between the resistance to do something for the friends in the Ten and the impression that is created?
M. Laitman: There is definitely a connection, but to scrutinize it, that's our problem.
Student: What is the connection? If there is resistance to do something and you do it, is the impression more powerful, the one that's created?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Now, such activities that we do in the Ten, these activities that we should do even against our will, they still create this impression? Let's say, I'm doing something for a friend, I have no desire for it, I don't want to do it, but I do it. I even feel resistance, but I know it's the right activity to do, and I do it. Does it leave an impression?
M. Laitman: Any action leaves an impression.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:12:42) Can we say that the Good Who does Good is the Creator's intention?
M. Laitman: I don't understand that.
Student: Behind the things that we see in reality, a person has a reality, and he experiences states, or he encounters situations, and he has to remember that - one, it came from the Creator, and two - that He is Good and does Good. Meaning that not only does he remember that it came from the Creator, he also remembers what is the Creator's intention. So, it's an intention, right? Now, in a person's reality, he sees wars, cruelty among people toward each other. This is what he sees. What should he remember, so it will be called that the Creator is Good and does Good?
M. Laitman: Again?
Student: When a person sees a reality where in this reality there are wars and people hurt each other. That reality, in order to translate it into a reality where there is the Creator and his intention is good and doing good, what should he see? How should he see reality? What is his effort in this reality in order to see that it's the Creator, and He is good and does good?
M. Laitman: It's possible that he should sympathize with the Creator, and then he'll understand how the Creator works. And that's how he'll advance. That in each and every next state, first he wants to identify the Creator and then adapt himself to the Creator as much as possible, and thus advance.
Student: What is the effort to adjust himself to the Creator, and to understand the Creator? The effort. I'm not talking about being there, but to start making an effort to adjust ourselves to the Creator.
M. Laitman: That is to see myself as being in the place of the Creator.
Student: Being instead of the Creator is to be in a place where something is created with a purpose and a direction, right?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And how do we succeed in seeing that the goal is good?
M. Laitman: That's according to the adhesion. The attempts to adhere to the Creator.
Student: Is it true to say that the person who has more connection with the Creator, the greater the connection with the Creator, compared to a person who doesn't have a connection with the Creator, is it true that the one who doesn't, who is not connected to the Creator sees corruptions in reality, and the one who is connected to the Creator sees corrections in reality?
M. Laitman: It's nice to say that way, but I'm not sure it's always like that.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:17:31) He writes here, in the end - all the calculations are not true if they do not lead to action, meaning to a sensation in the organs that he loves the Creator because He imparts the light and pleasure to the creatures. So, what is the feeling in the organs?
M. Laitman: In all the desires, in all thoughts.
Student: How is that expressed to love the Creator in all of your desires?
M. Laitman: A state of a person, internal, that stabilizes after the person receives an impression from the Creator.
Student: Every person can say, he receives an impression from the Creator, because many people feel good in life.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: The question is, is it ultimately the most accurate measurement in our state?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: What is the most precise, correct measurement?
M. Laitman: The most precise measurement we have is as much as we are in adhesion to the Creator.
Student: This adhesion between us, where is it found between us? How do we measure it? How do we check that it's truly the point we're in?
M. Laitman: Adhesion is something we have to build. If me and another friend want to reach adhesion between us, so we need to equalize our desires, our thoughts, and to see, as much as we are in this, as one.
Student: We make this test when we check it. Relative to what we check we want it to be as one, but what is this one outcome we're looking for if we compare the desires and the thoughts?
M. Laitman: Yes, the perception of reality, the current perception of reality.
Student: So, what is the desirable result?
M. Laitman: That we are in adhesion towards one another.
Student: Relative to what? Adhesion to…
M. Laitman: Relative to the state that comes to us from above.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:21:14) What should you do, so that the Torah that comes out of Rav's mouth will always protect the student?
M. Laitman: That depends on as much as he has students, as much as they are adhered to one another, as much as they are adhered to the Rav, then you can say that what is in them, what is in them comes from their connection to the Creator.
Student: What is this separation that he creates here? He says the Torah can always protect a person.
M. Laitman: Yes, because it's the light. It's the light that comes from above that organizes everything. That's why there's no problem with that light.
Student: What does it mean that the Upper One can arrange this light regardless of the student, the lower one. This light can always shine?
M. Laitman: Well, not always, but yes. There are conditions that are contradicting.
Student: Is there something we need to do between us? So, what comes out of the Rav, the sources, will always be with us in every state, will always protect us, as he says here in the article, that there's this quality to the Torah.
M. Laitman: I don't know. I do not know. If we annul ourselves, annul towards the upper force, we'll want to be in connection between us according to the conditions that come to us from above, so we will reach that state.
Student: Which state? Just to make sure.
M. Laitman: That I'll be in the same vessel of reception and vessel of bestowal as the Creator.